Seraph
by jessara40k
Summary: What if Ryou and Bakura were runing an elaborate scam on Yugi and his friends. AU Tendershipping with Ryou dominant.
1. Chapter 1

Warning: Tendershipping with Ryou seme

This is AU, seriously so

:blah: hikari to yami telepathy

-blah- yami to hikari telepathy

Yugi knew that something was up with Ryou from the way the other boy was acting. He'd almost think that Yami no Bakura had taken over his body and was masquerading as him, but Yami insisted that he could sense the other yami's presence, and he wasn't there - he wasn't even in the Ring. When he'd asked about that Ryou just smiled - no he _smirked_ the way his yami did. Once they'd gotten to school he didn't have any more chances to talk to Ryou, but there was something really weird about the way he was talking to the boy who sat next to him. Youji just laughed it off, but something about the set of Ryou's shoulder's told Yugi that was a mistake on the redhead's part.

"Class, we have a new student starting today. This is Hiei Bakura. Hiei-san, please write your name on the board, and introduce yourself to the class before finding a seat."

The new student was Yami no Bakura! But...he looked so different. His silver hair fell down to his waist, and there were chains of rubies bound into it. He had to be wearing dark red lipstick, and he'd painted the scar on his face with the same colour. There were heavy silver bracelets on his wrists, over his thin, red, clinging sweater, and on his ankles, over his tight black leather pants. A silver collar set with rubies was on his neck, and he moved like...like...some sort of sex slave, every line of his body screaming sensuality, but a sensuality that was almost chained. He wrote his name on the board, the kanji in Bakura different to the ones Ryou used before he turned to face the class.

"I'm Hiei Bakura, and I'm Ryou's." He seemed to feel that this was sufficient, and started to walk towards his hikari.

"Stop. What do you mean, you're Ryou's? Ryou's _what_?"

"Bakura, you're supposed to tell them something about what you like or dislike, that sort of thing. Not that I'm not flattered that you primarily identify yourself by your relationship to me." Amusement filled Ryou's voice, amusement and the confidence Yugi associated with his yami.

"Yes, Ryou. I apologise if I embarrassed you." He sounded...obedient, submissive. It was like they'd switched personalities or something. "When I was seven my entire...clan was slaughtered, burned alive, and their bodies desecrated and turned into _jewellery_, because it was supposed to have magical powers." Magical powers? He couldn't be talking about the Millennium Items, could he?

:Yami, that isn't how the Millennium Items were made - is it:

-I...don't know. You know I can't remember much about my past.-

"I was spared because they only needed ninety-nine lives, and I wasn't where I was supposed to be, so I ended up on the streets. My family were big on the boys knowing how to use knives, and that meant I could hunt - since there was no way for me to cook the meat I learned to like it raw. I also became _very_ good in a knife fight, and a good thief, to survive. I decided to hunt down and steal back the jewellery made from my clan's bodies, Ryou was the first person I found with a piece like that, he didn't know the origin of it, but I attacked him anyway, he defeated me," Whispers started across the classroom at that, Bakura _still_ moved like he was dangerous, and everyone knew Ryou was a wimp. "and helped me deal with what had happened. Is that enough?" It was a rhetorical question, he stalked over to the seat by Ryou and snarled at Youji to move. A command that was quickly obeyed.

Yugi passed the morning half in a daze, and half watching Bakura for any sign that he was dangerous. He was expecting the yami to lash out at any moment, or hurt Ryou somehow, but the thief acted like the perfect student, if anything it was _Ryou_ who was acting weird. Yeah, he was making notes, but whenever the teacher went back to recap he'd grope at Bakura, running his hands over the other's body in ways he really shouldn't in public. And Bakura didn't seem happy about it, he just kept his head bowed throughout, submitting, but not really responding, focusing on his work instead - or at least it looked that way.

--0--

Bakura refused to let anyone see just how relieved he was when the morning classes ended - anyone but his hikari that was. His head was still hurting, and he _knew_ he couldn't rely on his reflexes or his strength to be up to their usual standards, let alone risk using Shadow Magic until the drug cocktail Solar had forced on him wore off. And he wouldn't normally be _this_ aroused by Seraph's casual touches, not in public anyway, even before his first death he'd never been an exhibitionist, he'd always preferred privacy. So the humiliation factor of this being in front of people he barely knew, and certainly didn't trust should have kept him from reacting to Seraph displaying his claim. It was his own fault that he was aching all over, he'd been careless enough to let Solar take advantage of him, and he'd taken gamma standard testing, which was right at the edge of his abilities at the moment, instead of settling for delta enhanced.

"Might I go to the washroom and join you later?" He whispered the question to Seraph, knowing that the hikari would pick up on his hint.

"Need to jack off? Sure. I'll let you know where we're eating." Bakura knew he was blushing as he spun and damn near fled the classroom, Seraph's laughter following him. This had to be some sort of punishment, not the constant 'affection', ever since he'd become old enough to see a Consort as a bedmate as much as a status symbol Seraph had insisted on his right to touch Bakura however and whenever he wanted, but being forced to come to school while the drug cocktail was still in effect. And he didn't even know what he'd done _wrong_!

He realised he was crying as his seed spattered into the toilet bowl, and he finally recognised that his very last chance to avenge his people had slipped through his fingers. Perhaps that was what he'd done to deserve being punished...no, that had never been more than an amusement for Seraph. Either way he couldn't afford to let it show that he'd been crying, he dashed the tears from his eyes with the back of his arm and went out to wash his hands and face, before taking his lipstick and lipbrush out to repair his make-up. He ran his fingers over his collar in wonder that he was still claimed as Seraph's property and under his protection, lingering on the tag, an angel with six wings, a seraph with his hikari's face.

:We'll be eating outside, here.: Seraph pushed an image into his mind. :How long will you be:

-I'm just leaving the washroom now.- He hastily put his make-up away and matched his actions to his thoughts. He tried not to think about how Seraph's 'friends' - although how they could be friends when they never knew the first thing about him, or tended his wounds beyond the minimum that they forgot about was beyond him - would be reacting to this. And so he found himself obsessing over that very question, so much that he didn't notice the six large teens surrounding him until one of them had grabbed him by the hair. He wondered briefly if Solar's drugs had dulled his senses too, then he brushed the question off, to focus on surviving this. -Seraph!- He didn't care about his pride, not when he was too drugged to defend himself without a weapon and not allowed to use his knife. Not that it would really have done much good, as soon as his hair had been grabbed two of the goons had grabbed his arms, and he _couldn't_ get free of them to use his knife, or any of the nerve pinches he'd learned.

"So, you're that white-haired wimp's fag boyfriend, huh?" The leader stepped close to him, crudely groping him, and Bakura realised that his feet were still free, raising them to kick him in the stomach as hard as he could. The boy staggered back, and growled at him - not very well, but he still growled. "Hold his legs!" That reminded Bakura of another weapon he could use.

"Coward!" He didn't have enough room to stop the goons grabbing his legs, but he could make it hard for them. "You don't even have the courage to face me on your own, let alone _him_!" And they didn't, none of the idiots Seraph allowed to bully him worked alone. If they had Seraph would have been able to use nerve pinches to defend himself, even weakened as he had been. He knew he'd delayed them long enough when he heard the crunch of a wrist being broken and felt the hand in his hair release him.

"No one touches my property." Seraph's voice wasn't loud, but quiet with controlled fury, the boys recognised the danger and dropped Bakura, he just sat back and watched as Seraph demolished them.

--0--

Yami pushed Yugi into his soul room in panic when Ryou cursed and ran off without explaining anything. He'd felt a flare of power and he led Yugi's friends after Ryou. When they got through the crowd surrounding him Yami could see five larger boys who'd bullied Yugi in the past lying about with broken bones, a woman - no, not a woman, Bakura, kneeling nearby, gathering his and Ryou's gear back together, and Ryou holding one last bully, the leader from what he'd seen, up against the wall. This last bully was relatively undamaged, Ryou seemed to just touch him on the neck and he went limp below the neck.

"You've just been temporarily paralysed. It should wear off in a minute or two. But remember what I can do." Then he lifted his free hand and just flicked a finger at the centre of his chest. There was a loud cracking noise and the bully screamed as Ryou dropped him. He turned to Bakura and the spirit handed his bag up to him before letting Ryou pull him to his feet.

"Did they get the chance to hurt you, Shadow?" Ryou's voice was hard, but the arm he slid around Bakura's waist seemed very gentle.

"No, Seraph-sama." The rubies in Bakura's hair made a tinkling sound as he shook his head. "You got here before anything could happen."

"Come on then." Ryou ignored the moaning bodies littering the hallway as he began leading Bakura away. "Oh, Yami, sorry about leaving you like that. I'd rather not explain how totally incompetent the goons are as fighters, would you?"

"No." Yami found himself laughing at that, and at the totally disarming smile Ryou offered, a smile that was so familiar from the year they'd known him. It was true, almost none of the bullies could fight very well, he'd been able to use Yugi's body to defend his hikari from up to three of them without resorting to Shadow Magic - but he'd never have been able to do what Ryou must have. He didn't think _Bakura_ could have, and he knew the tomb robber was a better fighter on the physical level than he was.

:But I can't imagine Bakura _needing_ to be rescued, Yami. Why did he need Ryou to save him:

-Good question Yugi. I'll ask.- Yami realised they were almost to the entrance of the school, they needed to change shoes before they left the building, and decided to wait until they'd actually gotten out into the grounds before he asked anything. Well, before he asked Ryou anything. -Aibou, is Bakura really putting on women's boots?- The boots in question were black leather, ankle height, and had a low, narrow heel.

:I think so.:

Bakura seemed to sense the unspoken questions, because he gave everyone a sidelong glance from beneath lowered lashes and spoke. "Seraph-sama likes the way I walk in boots like these, and at least these heels are low enough that I can fight in them, when I'm not drugged."

Drugged? Yami didn't have a chance to ask about that, they were outside by now, and Ryou called a bit of Shadow Magic, he wasn't sure what for.

"No one can overhear us now. Shadow, what did the drugs Solar forced on you do? I thought it was just an aphrodisiac, and something to keep you from concentrating well enough to use your Shadow Magic safely." His voice was quiet, sympathetic, but firm, Yami could tell that he was going to get an answer, whatever it took.

"Apart from that? I think it works out to about the same effect as those power binders you've been wearing this past year Seraph-sama."

"Except that you don't have the benefit of being stronger for it when the drugs wear off." Ryou pulled Bakura a bit closer to his body, kissing his throat just above the collar - and what was that attached to it? "So your reflexes and senses are screwed, and you're probably as weak as a normal five year old at the moment."

"Pretty much Seraph-sama." Bakura was blushing so red it almost hid his painted scar by now, he had to be humiliated to have to admit this in front of them. Yami knew he should leave well enough alone, but he couldn't resist, and as soon as they'd all sat down, Bakura between Ryou's legs, his back against his hikari's chest Yami reached out and took hold of the...tag; he couldn't think of a better term; hanging from Bakura's collar. The tomb robber didn't make the slightest effort to stop him, and Ryou seemed more amused than anything else as he twisted the little metal model of...Ryou; the eyes were brown so it had to be Ryou; clad in a white tunic and trousers, with six wings. When he turned it over, to look at how the wings were attached to the back they _moved_ and he saw that they had writing on the back.

--0--

Ryou didn't even try to conceal his amusement as the amnesiac pharaoh examined his Consort's tag. He felt a momentary flash of guilt for telling his Consort to wear the heavy platinum jewellery when he was weakened by the drugs Solar had pumped into him, but he reminded himself that he hadn't _known_ about Shadow's weakness at the time. Besides, he knew that it made Shadow feel better when he wore his collar, and he'd _earned_ something that beautiful and valuable.

"Shadow, property of Seraph." Well, he could read at least. "What's that about?" Shadow was shifting uncomfortably in his arms, as if he half wanted to answer that himself.

:Go ahead, tell him what a yami _really_ is.: While he remembered what it had taken to teach that to Shadow in the first six months he'd been inside his head, how he'd killed his yami over and over in his soul room, how he'd taught the other that his will was too weak to stand against him. And how he'd forced Shadow to watch as he fulfilled the contracts he was given on the 'faces' of the criminal world.

"A yami is the property of the hikari who claims the Millennium Item he is bonded to. It is his hikari's right to do whatever he chooses with him, treat him however he pleases." Shadow tilted his head to one side, curiously. "You do not know this? I had thought you did considering how rarely you defy your hikari's decisions on who should control your shared body, and how he has altered your personality to please him better without any protest from you." Ryou had used a number of scrying spells to find out everything he could before allowing Shadow to make his attempt to gather the last remnants of his people, and that was one of the things that had come up. It seemed to be a surprise to everyone else though. The pharaoh paled and swayed a bit, until Yugi came back out and steadied himself, even if the teen still looked shell-shocked by the thought.

"I didn't!" He was protesting his innocence. Oh this was amusing. "And what's with the Shadow and Seraph thing anyway?" Now he was trying to change the subject. Ryou would allow it, but he wasn't going to let Yugi ignore what he'd done.

"You did. You might not have realised it, but you locked away all the parts of Yami's personality that disturbed you. It is your right to do so of course, and you _could_ because he was shattered when he went into the puzzle and in resembling it you reassembled his mind and soul to a large degree. Shadow and Seraph are our names among The Children of the Fairest."

"The what?" Jounouchi was the one to ask that of course.

"The Morningstar was the fairest of the angels in Christian mythology before he Fell." Shadow spoke quietly, bowing his head in apology for speaking out of turn. Ryou just laughed and stroked his hair. It seemed to encourage him, because he spoke again, reaching over to their bags to get their bento boxes out as he did. "Shouldn't we start to eat? You don't want to spend so long talking about this that you don't have a chance to eat, do you Seraph-sama?"

"Well thought, Shadow." Ryou lifted his Consort by the waist, turning him so he was sitting on his left thigh. "This will make more sense if I tell you from the start, so be patient." He frowned, thinking about where to start, then started to explain between bites of rice and meat.

"I was learning how to fight before I knew how to walk. No one in my family knew about it, I kept it secret, even if I can't remember _why_ I did back then. My teacher, later my Sponsor, is called Delphi, he's only mid-ranked, just gamma enhanced, but he gets a lot of allowances made because of his skills at finding talent. Puppeteer is one of his Sponsored, as I am, so she helped train me. Solar hates that _he_ isn't." One of the reasons behind the rivalry that had pulled Shadow into it and hurt him. While Solar was just attacking him Ryou had allowed it, but now he'd hurt Shadow, _really_ hurt him, not just a prank like slipping him one of the cocktails often given to recalcitrant Consorts or concubines.

"When I was five, after I'd killed an idiot for trying to get me into his car, Delphi decided I was good enough to test as an Adept among The Children of the Fairest. There's two other branches, The Children of the Eldest, and the Children of the Fallen, but he felt I fitted best in the Fairest, and I went through delta standard testing. Then I began to Work. Solar resented me because at ten he was the youngest Adept until I was tested, and he'd started as epsilon enhanced four years previously, and then he had just gone through delta enhanced testing. He took gamma standard the next time, but he's just beta enhanced now, I don't think he's likely to get to alpha standard, and I'm alpha enhanced, the highest rank we have.

"My father gave me the Millennium Ring when I was seven, just two weeks before I was due to test as delta enhanced for the first time." And Ryou let himself remember that.

--0--

His father hadn't made it to his birthday party - not that it had meant much to him, his Aunt and Uncle had invited all the kids in his class at school, and they'd come because he scared them - but he'd been disappointed that he hadn't even managed to get a present delivered on time. So he hadn't been too pleased a month later when he'd been called to Egypt and put to work sketching his latest find. But the doctor _had_ made it up to him, he'd called him into his hotel room two days after he'd arrived and smiled at him conspiratorially.

"I know I missed your birthday, and I'm sorry, but I saw something that I just _knew_ had to be yours, and I couldn't risk sending it through the mail. Here," He thrust a clumsily wrapped parcel at Ryou then, "it's supposed to be over 5000 years old, and magical. Probably illegal for me to have it too." He laughed then, and Ryou opened the package eagerly. He knew that the pendant inside really did have power, but he couldn't tell what sort yet, so he put it on and showed all the enthusiasm his father could want. And he was happy with the present, he appreciated the fact that his father was breaking the law to give it to him more than anything else, more even than the power it could offer. It was the first sign Ryou had seen that his father had any sensitivity beyond what _normal_ people possessed, and that was enough to make up for missing his birthday, and after all he couldn't have dragged Ryou over here until school was over.

He began to meditate that night, rather than sleeping, focused on the pendant - no, it wasn't a pendant, it was the Millennium Ring - that was the first thing he found out. But he didn't have a chance to interrogate it more, there was a link between him and it, and there was also something pulling him through the power structure of the Ring, to a room of sorts. It was carved out of rock, only roughly finished, and gold and silver tomb goods were stored in meticulous order along with the sort of weapons used 5000 years ago in Egypt. There wasn't a bed, only a pile of furs and blankets, and a pale haired man, perhaps twenty years old, with red eyes and a strange scar on his right cheek climbing out of it.

"Who the fuck are you?" He was angry, and he obviously didn't understand what was going on. That was good, he could use that to his advantage. Ryou let himself smile at the man, coldly, cruelly.

"Your new master." And even if his words weren't true yet, if simply possessing the Ring didn't give him control of the spirit bound in it, he'd _make_ them true. This had to be the spirit's place of power, defeating him here would allow Ryou to control him in all ways and then he could find out what abilities he could have to be of use. Ryou continued to speak while the spirit was still speechless at his arrogance. "Tell me what skills you have that might be useful, slave."

That last word was enough to push him over the edge, he attacked Ryou, but he wasn't anything more than a brawler, a good brawler, but only a brawler, and Ryou easily bested him. Until he tried to bring magic into it, but all that did was cue Ryou into the fact that magic _would_ work here, and he called his own magic to burn the other's away. He was hampered by his desire _not_ to actually kill the spirit, in case it was permanent here, but it finally occurred to him to break his new possession's sternum, rendering him helpless, for a while anyway.

"What sort of magic was it that you tried to use, slave?"

"I'm not your slave, you fucking bastard!" And Ryou sensed magic again, but this time he could taste what type of magic it was, at least a little. _His_ magic was light, and healing sometimes, this felt like some amalgam of that and its opposite, and it was the same type of magic bound into the Millennium Ring. He burned it away again, this could get tiring, then he picked four knives from the weaponry available and used them to pin the spirit to the floor.

Then he left the room and began to explore the Ring. The magic was interesting, and fascinatingly intricate, but he was interrupted before he had a chance to explore properly. He'd left a link to his body, in case something happened that he couldn't leave to autonomic functions - and something was happening. When he got back to his body he found someone else already in it, the spirit of the Ring trying to possess it. He wasn't going to allow that, he used the methods he'd learned to fight against Puppeteer's control to throw him out of his body violently, then he chased the other down to the room he'd found him in, and dragged him out. If the spirit had a place of power connected to the Ring so must he. He searched it out, and imprisoned the man in a sensory deprivation chamber he created there.

--0--


	2. Chapter 2

Warning: Tendershipping with Ryou seme

Also, issues of consent are first mentioned in this chapter.

Cheysuli-night, I think I've answered at least one of the questions you raised in your review. I'd like some more reviews from anyone reading this. Flames will be ignored.

Also, the last section's mostly lemon, so you can ignore it if you've got an aversion to that sort of thing. You'll lose out on a bit of character development mind.

This is AU, seriously so

:blah: hikari to yami telepathy

-blah- yami to hikari telepathy

"He was an adult?" Jounouchi interrupted Seraph's description of their first meeting and Bakura fought the urge to flinch. _He_ hadn't done anything or spoken out of turn he reminded himself, but he still kept his eyes and attention on his meal. He'd missed far too many meals in his first life to ever let something as petty as emotional trauma, as listening to his master skim over how he'd broken him, keep him from eating.

"Yes, until I got him a body of his own he appeared in our soul rooms and the Ring's power structure as he was when he was killed. Anyway, he asked me who I was, I pissed him off to goad him into attacking me, and then I defeated him, and left him with the sort of injury I inflicted on the idiot who wanted to molest him just now."

"How did you manage that?" Yugi sounded astounded by that.

"Every six months since I became an Adept of the Fairest I'd undergone delta standard testing. That involves 'killing' five mystical constructs the equivalent of black belts in martial arts. And I already had access to magic of my own. Besides, as a hikari confronting my yami the Ring aided me against him."

"What?" Yugi couldn't be that ignorant, could he?

:_You_ explain it to him, he might take it better from you.: Bakura reluctantly tore his attention away from his food. He hadn't wanted to speak about this, it was too humiliating, and besides he really didn't mind when his master talked around him like he was furniture or something else incapable of understanding.

"In any combat on a metaphysical plain there are two factors, strength of will, and _where_ it takes place. If the opponents are yami and hikari linked to the same Millennium Item the Item in question will be a third factor in favour of the hikari. Seraph-sama has always been stronger of will than I, and the Ring supported him, so it didn't matter that we were in my soul room, my place of power." Bakura looked at his hikari in a silent plea to be permitted to return to eating.

"Anyway, since a cracked sternum in the physical world will leave you in a hospital bed for weeks I just left him there and explored the Ring's magic. That's when I learned how far you can go in the soul rooms, and how swift recovery is there, because he tried to take control of my body. I used what I'd learned from Puppeteer to stop him, went to his soul room, dragged him out and to _my_ soul room, then I stuck him in a sensory deprivation chamber."

"What's that?" It was a reasonable question, _Bakura_ knew what Seraph was talking about from the context, but the others wouldn't. And described, it didn't sound as bad as it was, so it was unlikely to put them off their food.

"It's...I can't really describe what it is, just what it did to me. I couldn't see, hear, smell, taste, or even feel anything until Seraph-sama let me out. I lost track of time there, really badly, I thought I spent days there, that first time." And he had on occasion, even if it was 'just' hours the first time. "When he let me out he told me that since I used Shadow Magic I would be answering to the name Shadow in the future." Bakura fiddled uncomfortably with his chopsticks as he spoke. "I...called him a brat, and told him that my name was Bakura. When he told me that it didn't matter I attacked him again, and lost again," actually Seraph hadn't bothered with waiting for Bakura to attack, just killed him, beat him to death, and told him to address him as Seraph-sama, then killed him another five or six times, "then he put me back _there_."

Seraph took over then. "I made sure he was aware when I underwent delta enhanced testing, and when I Worked, and by the end of six months he knew his place." Six months where he was either being killed, in that terrible place that drove him insane, or watching as his hikari slaughtered people. "I began working on a spell to give him his own body as soon as I knew what he was of course, but when I figured it out I'd just passed my third delta enhanced testing, and I learned that I'd only have access to what I needed for my spell if I took gamma standard testing. So I started the spell six months later, and a month after that Bakura had his own body, the same age as mine. I immediately started training him to fight as my back-up, so that I could make him my Consort at my next assessment." Bakura could see the others doing the math, that the two of them would have been eight at the time, and quickly explained.

"He wanted a Consort as a status symbol, and as a playmate who wouldn't be too scared of him to be any fun more than anything else. And...he gave me the option of being free from the Ring." It hadn't been a true choice for Bakura, but they didn't need to know that.

--0--

Bakura was terrified and confused. His master had put him into the Timeless Place for the first time in over a year, and he hadn't done anything _wrong_. Then when he was released he wasn't in his hikari's soul room, he was in a weird place with lots of awful metal things, and he was covered with some sort of slime he'd never seen before. It wasn't his master bringing him out either, it was a group of men who belonged to The Children of the Fairest, and his body was all wrong. He'd caught a glimpse of himself in one of the polished metal things, and he looked the same age as his master, but he _felt_ stronger than he'd been at that age. That didn't matter, he was still naked, and a child, surrounded by grown men, he _knew_ what that could lead to, and he cowered in the best shelter he could find, in the angle where the metal thing he'd come out of met the wall.

The men seemed to find that funny, and one of them tossed a towel and a robe at him.

"Dry yourself off and put that on kid. None of us would risk touching an Adept's property. How he managed to get a vanity clone with a personality..." Bakura hesitantly obeyed, watching the men warily as they talked and laughed among themselves.

"However he did it he has good taste, he's gonna grow up a stunner, and so'll this one."

"Pity about the scar. Can't understand why he wanted it."

Bakura felt a little bit better when he had something on. But he wanted to panic again when a new man poked his head though the door.

"Seraph's pet project ready to go yet?"

"That's him over there." The man grabbed hold of Bakura, and began to _try_ to drag him out of the room. He fought the man's grip, and found himself winning, he didn't know how, until one of the first group of men stuck something in him, and he found himself collapsing. The man who'd tried to drag him away picked him up then, and threw him over his shoulder, carrying him like that through metal lined tunnels, until he came to one particular door. The room through that door looked a bit like a pharaoh's burial chamber, except there was a bed instead of a sarcophagus, a bed he was thrown onto and left on.

He heard the sound of a lock after the man closed the door and he wondered what the point was. He couldn't move anyway, he was trying. He could sort of sense the Millennium Ring, but only in that it was a hell of a distance away.

He didn't know how much later it was that Seraph arrived, stepping through a door made of light that appeared on one wall.

"They had to drug you to get you here? Good. It means you have spirit my pet." He sat beside Bakura on the bed and began to run his hands over the thief's body, but when he was finished Bakura could move again.

"S-seraph-sama? What happened?"

"I got you a body, my pet. Now, you have a choice. First, there is a Shadow Magic spell that will sever your link to the Ring. If you me to then I'll teach you how to use it, and arrange for you to get a legal identity, then you'll be on your own." He'd survived on his own this young back in Egypt, but...he didn't know enough about this modern world to do that again. "Or, I can take care of you, but the price of that is you spend the next five months training your ass off, and test alongside me at my next assessment, to become my Consort." Consort? Bakura began scrambling away from him on the bed, until he was huddled up against the wall. That means sex! But he's too young! Ra, in this body _I'm_ too young. He could remember how much it had hurt when he lost his virginity the first time, at twelve, in exchange for not being handed over for judgement when he'd been caught. The man had used _some_ oil at least, but he'd still been hurting for weeks afterwards. "Don't look so terrified, Shadow. I'm a bit young to _have_ those sort of desires. What I'd want in a Consort is a playmate, someone who won't leave me, or be too scared of me to be any fun, and a status symbol. It will impress people that I've planned ahead, and have someone ready for when I start to feel those urges, someone who'll be clean and who'll know his place. If you took the first option you'd still have some Shadow Magic," That was something, at least, even if he wasn't sure how much Shadow Magic he could use at the moment. "but not as much as you have now. Think about it, I'll give you an hour to decide."

"I don't need an hour to decide, Seraph-sama." Bakura swallowed uncomfortably. "I'll train to be your Consort."

--0--

"I don't know how Seraph-sama managed it, but when I first got this body it was precisely as strong as my old body, when I was killed and trapped in the Ring. He was still stronger of course, and he always will be. I spent the next five months learning to fight alongside him, and to integrate Shadow Magic into combat, as his back-up, and then we had to 'kill' fifty magical constructs of black belt level in martial arts. That was gamma enhanced testing, although Seraph-sama was still counted as gamma standard." Bakura smiled, a genuine smile, not his usual smirks, as he made the next revelation. "That's when he gave me my first collar, it was a platinum mesh, with a ruby set into the buckle, and the tag was a two dimensional version of this." He reached up to touch the angel hanging from his collar and looked meaningfully at Yugi. "You might want to think about what sort of tag you're going to put on your yami if and when he gets his own body." Bakura shut his eyes then, and snuggled into Ryou's chest, obviously he wasn't going to say anything else.

"I...Yami _isn't_ a slave! And I'm not going to let you tell me that he is!"

-Thank you aibou.- Yami sounded grateful - and more than a little surprised. Yugi couldn't understand how his other half could let the accusations Bakura'd made affect him so much, but he wouldn't get angry at Yami.

:You're mou hitori no boku, I could never hurt you. But...we need to talk about what they're claiming, when we're alone.:

"Is that collar you're wearing your fashion sense, or _his_? I think he knows what he's meant to be, even if he denies it. Anyway, Shadow learned about modern security methods, and how to apply his old skills in the modern world, but I never took him along when I Worked."

"Erm? What does Worked _mean_? You're making it sound weird." Jounouchi asked the question Yugi wanted to.

"It means assassinated people." Bakura glanced up as he spoke, before burying his head back into Ryou's chest as the younger boy smiled and stroked his hair. Ryou was an assassin! Yugi quelled his instinctive panic, reminding himself that the white haired boy had spent the last year being beaten up more often and worse than he had been.

"Shadow told me about his past, and when we learned about you and the Millennium Puzzle I offered him the chance to attempt to gather the Items together and lay his people to rest as best he could. We had a year before he was due to be assessed as my Consort again, and I was beta enhanced by then, so there was no way he'd be able to survive as my back-up at that level. So I declared that I was taking a year for intensive training, and had a set of power binders made for me, that would last a year, and during that year could be activated and deactivated by Shadow alone. The bruises and cuts you saw were from my training, when Shadow deactivated the power binders and supplied me with a duel monster to spar with. Because I was wearing the power binders my power struggled against them, to manifest and increased far more rapidly than usual, a similar process to weight training.

"When the time came for us to be assessed I gave Shadow the choice of being assessed as a delta enhanced Adept Consort, or a gamma standard Adept Consort - they both mean that he's an Adept in his own right, but he remains my Consort, as opposed to my Sponsored."

-Aibou- Yami had never sounded this hesitant before, for a second Yugi felt a flash of pure rage, rage that made Yami quail, he could feel it. -_why_ is Ryou letting us know what he is? He could have kept it a secret, told us that Bakura was gone and none of us would know the difference.-

:Good question, Yami, you do know I wasn't mad at you:

-Yes, but...you've never been that angry at _anything_ before. And I have changed since you first completed the puzzle.- So he was afraid at least one of those accusations were true.

"Why are you telling us all of this now? Why not just let us think Bakura was destroyed? And why did you fight against him even a little bit if you approved of his plans?"

"I'm sick of playing the little innocent, it was fun, and I liked having friends who weren't scared of me, but I want people to respect me instead of seeing me as a target. And I wanted to use this time to strengthen Shadow too, so he'd be able to gain a decent rank in his own right, as an Adept Consort he only needs to be assessed once a year, so I might be able to get him up to gamma enhanced in two assessments. I doubt he'll ever be better than beta standard, but he's mine, and gamma standard's when we get a lot of privileges." He cocked his head to one side for a moment. "We need to get back to class now."

--0--

Ryou made sure to keep an arm protectively around Shadow as they made their way back to the classroom, casually breaking the wrist of the first idiot to reach out to touch him. He couldn't really blame people for wanting to touch his beautiful Consort, but Shadow _was_ his property, and he wasn't going to share. Still...the jewellery was an added temptation, and Shadow was weak at the moment, so...

"You don't have to wear the jewellery tomorrow if you don't want to." Shadow gasped in shock at that, and looking at him Ryou saw his hand had flown to his collar. "The collar isn't jewellery, and it's not coming off ever if I can help it, but we've got P.E. tomorrow, so you'll be wearing your hair in a simple braid."

"Tied off with a red ribbon, Seraph-sama?" Shadow smiled at him, teasingly, as he asked the question. But he knew that even if it looked ridiculous his Consort would use a red ribbon to tie his braid if Ryou told him to.

"Tempting, but no. Just use a simple hair tie. Would you prefer some cheap silver jewellery for school?" He didn't like the idea, but silver would make him less of a target.

"I...that still surprises me," he laughed quietly, "the term 'cheap silver', even after seven years I still think of silver as more precious than gold, the way it was back in my time. Anyway, I'll wear whatever you choose to put me in, you know that, Seraph-sama." He shrugged against Ryou, unaware of how arousing the pure submission implied in his words was.

"No jewellery until the drugs wear off, and I'll get you some cheaper stuff for everyday wear." It wasn't as if he couldn't afford the more expensive stuff, but there'd be questions asked, and he'd already run enough of a risk with the sort of jewels Shadow was wearing today. On the other hand, having his Consort all femmed up like this had certainly helped convince the others to take their changed behaviour seriously, and it would help separate his Consort from 'the evil spirit of the Ring' in their minds.

Shadow didn't have time to reply before class started, and he took pity on him, resisting the temptation to keep on tormenting him with his touches. It was hard, he wasn't used to having to keep his hands to himself where his property was concerned, but Shadow had been really upset, in part because he'd responded to Ryou's touches in front of people. He just didn't get this thing Shadow had about privacy, but he'd indulge him for a while, and he focused purely on the lessons, not the temptingly close beauty.

He _did_ want his Consort eager to please him as soon as they got some of the privacy he so valued though, so on the way home he kept on playing with Shadow, enjoying the way his friends reacted to that. There was something he needed to decide about his Consort anyway, something he'd put off because he hadn't felt secure enough among The Children of the Fairest, or about his Consort's survival.

"One of the things I like best about Shadow is his scar, it adds interest to his face." Ryou grinned over at his friends. "Should be obvious that I like it from how I had him highlight it, huh? But I was thinking about having it reopened and stitched up with rubies in the stitching, so it's permanently emphasised. What do you all think?"

"Why the hell are you asking us?" Jounouchi sounded outraged, it was amusing to see the sudden protective urges they were directing at his Consort, urges they used to direct at _him_. "It's Bakura's face you're talking about cutting up. Isn't it his choice?"

"It's more of this 'yamis are the property of their hikaris' rubbish, isn't it Ryou?" Yugi sounded almost accusing, no, forget the almost, he just sounded flat out accusing. "How much of what he's wearing did you force him into?"

"Just the jewellery and make-up. I like the way he looks with painted lips - a bit like a vampire."

"Yugi-dono, please, it's part of what I agreed to when I _became_ Seraph-sama's Consort. And...that spell to hide it would still work, so..." Shadow shrugged as he spoke. "But...I'm not sure rubies would be the best choice of jewel."

"You might have a point." They'd reached his house by then, and he let Shadow open the door for them. "See you all tomorrow." He waved to his friends as he pushed Shadow into the house.

--0--

Bakura shivered as he felt Seraph push him into their house. He didn't understand what had earned him the reprieve Seraph had allowed him during the afternoon classes, but he'd known it had been too good to last, and from the hunger he felt over his bond with Seraph he _knew_ the assassin was going to take him soon. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy it when his master claimed him, it was just that he _hated_ it when he had sex under the influence of any drugs. But his wishes never mattered in that, and at least it would be easy for him to relax.

"Strip, quickly." As if Bakura would be stupid enough to tease without a direct order. Boots first, then the bracelets and anklets, but when he reached for the rubies in his hair Seraph took hold of his wrist. "No, leave the rubies in." He nodded obediently and pulled his sweater over his head instead, then reached for the fly of his pants, pulling them off as quickly as he could, thanking Ra yet again that his legs were so smooth in this life, carefully not thinking about the possibility that it was something Seraph built into him when this body was made. And then he was standing naked and aroused in the middle of the hall, wondering _where_ Seraph was going to take him this time.

Here? Oh, Ra. Seraph pressed Bakura up against the wall, and kissed him until the thief was dizzy, casting some sort of barely noticed spell to clean him inside as he did. He didn't even care where they were when he felt a single oiled finger slip inside him as Seraph began preparing him, he was too lost in trying to keep his knees from buckling. Seraph's other hand was exploring his torso, skimming over his ribs and teasing each nipple in turn, distracting him from the slight discomfort. His head fell back and he grabbed hold of Seraph's shoulders as the probing finger hit just...the..._right_ spot. Seraph took the opportunity to latch onto his neck, nipping and sucking at it around his collar, hard enough that he'd have bruises later, forcing a moan of pleasure from his mouth.

Seraph pulled back instantly, making Bakura want to cry from the loss of his touch. :Did I hurt you Shadow:

-No, Seraph-sama.- He let their link open to its fullest so Seraph would _know_ he was telling the truth, and got another deep kiss in response. It wasn't a finger going inside him this time, it was a bit thicker, but he didn't really care what it was, until it started _moving_, and he lost the battle to stay upright.

Seraph scooped him up in his arms, carrying him upstairs as he fought against climax. It wasn't until Seraph laid him on the bed that he realised he wasn't supposed to do that.

"Come for me, my pet." Seraph knelt by him watching, one hand turning Bakura's face to his as he shuddered his way to release. While he was limp Seraph changed the toy inside him for something just a bit bigger, something that still moved and stripped slowly, making a production of it. By the time Seraph had finished Bakura was hard again, hard and needy, but Seraph still made a point of preparing him to be taken, finally sliding easily into him as he wrapped his legs around his hikari's waist. Time lost meaning, as usual, and this time Seraph let him feel what _he_ was feeling too. The overload was just too much for him to handle, and he came, again, Seraph finishing not too long after.

Seraph pushed up onto an elbow, just looking at him for a moment, then he brushed Bakura's tangled hair and rubies aside. "What sort of take-out do you want me to order?"

"Why..." He trailed off without actually asking a question, but the intent was there. Bakura had learned how to cook while he was waiting for Seraph to get old enough to demand he perform the usual function of a Consort, it had been his choice, it meant he'd be less dependent on other people, but it meant he usually prepared their meals.

"I can't cook to save my life, you _know_ that." Not to any decent standard anyway. "And I want you to _rest_ tonight."

"Thank you Seraph-sama." He could foresee an afternoon and evening where he wouldn't be allowed to move more than a few steps without Seraph offering to carry him, but it was sweet in some ways, confining, but sweet. "Chinese perhaps?"

"I'll bring you some leaflets." It would be the first time they'd had to order out in the year they'd lived in Domino City, but with the mood Seraph was in they'd probably be buying their lunches tomorrow as well.

--0--


	3. Chapter 3

Warning: Tendershipping with Ryou seme

This is AU, seriously so

I'd like some more reviews from anyone reading this. Flames will be ignored.

:blah: hikari to yami telepathy

-blah- yami to hikari telepathy

Yami knew that he'd been worrying his aibou by refusing to contact him after the lunchtime revelations, but he _had_ to find out how much accuracy there was in what Ryou - no, _Seraph_, he couldn't think of the hikari as sweet innocent Ryou anymore, had been saying. And he'd found at least some supporting evidence within an hour of exploring the Millennium Puzzle in the way he perhaps should have a long time ago. In any serious conflict between himself and Yugi the Puzzle would support Yugi, he'd never realised it because he never had fought with his hikari, never had a reason to.

Ra, it had never even occurred to him that he'd _have_ a hikari one day before Yugi assembled the Puzzle, so he'd certainly had no reason to search for how they'd interact. He knew he'd changed since the day Yugi had assembled the Puzzle, but he'd always assumed it had been a natural change, now Seraph and...Shadow; if he couldn't think of that assassin as Ryou he certainly couldn't think of the..._victim_ who'd come to school today as Bakura; had made him doubt that.

But...Yugi had been so shocked at the implication of Shadow's words, even if he had been forced to take over because _Yami_ couldn't handle the idea. Another reason to feel guilty, for ever letting the thief's insinuations affect him so much that he was surprised at his hikari's defence of him. Yami was usually the one who got angry in defence of their friends...even if it sometimes felt like they were more Yugi's friends, and they just saw him as an extension of Yugi...but he _knew_ that Yugi had it in him to defend those he cared about.

:Mou hitori no boku, please, please, come out and _talk_ to me.: There was so much pain in Yugi's mind...

"I'm sorry aibou." He didn't get a chance to say anything else, Yugi hugged him desperately.

"Don't say that! You haven't done anything wrong. I was just so...worried!" He was almost crying, not quite, but almost. "Ryou said such awful things and they hurt you so much, didn't they?"

"I...it was just all so...weird. Shadow coming to school - _with_ his own body - wearing lipstick and decked out in jewellery, including a slave collar. Then Seraph demolishes six thugs in what couldn't be more than a minute. I couldn't do that, _Bakura_ couldn't do that, and I always made sure I faced him in games, with magic, because I couldn't match him any other way. And then, what they said...I had to find out how much was true aibou. That's why you couldn't contact me. You understand don't you?"

"Yes. You're...okay now though? You _know_ that they were lying now...right?" Yugi pushed away so they were sitting with a few inches between them, he was obviously afraid of crowding Yami, and he felt ashamed of letting his fears show so obviously. "And why are you using those names?"

"That's just it, aibou. They weren't lying, not entirely." Yami kept his voice gentle, he didn't want to upset his hikari. "I was exploring the Puzzle this afternoon, in a way I never thought to before. And it _will_ aid you against me if we ever have a serious conflict. And I used to be almost as bad as Bakura was when it came to hurting people - even if my reasons were different. You didn't like how far I'd go to protect you, but when you called me from the Puzzle all I was certain of was that I had to protect you." Yami laughed bitterly at that. "Not that I always did a very good job of it, aibou, you've been dragged into trouble because of me so many times..."

"It's not your fault. I got into trouble without you before, until you came along I was being bullied, you _know_ that, I'd probably be bullied again if you left." Was that supposed to make Yami feel better? "You've made my life so much better. I'd never blame you for anything."

"If you say so, but aibou, it's bad for you to be dependent on me like that. I should try to teach you to defend yourself without Shadow Magic - because you _can_ use that. Seraph asked whose fashion sense the collar was, and it's something you picked up from me, isn't it? Like the rest of your fashion sense now. And I don't think I would have wanted to wear a collar before I died, do you?"

--0--

Yugi hated seeing his strong, confident yami so uncertain and so nervous. He couldn't believe how badly a few words from those two psychos had affected him - well, a few words, and an afternoon spent brooding over those words. He desperately tried to think of something to make his yami feel better, and he latched onto what Yami had said about when he emerged from the Millennium Puzzle. "Yami, I think, if you're meant to protect me, the way the Puzzle reacts if we're in conflict is because of that, it protects me if I'm in danger from you, that's all. Ryou just _wants_ it to mean that Bakura's his slave, and he tortured him until he believed it. Not that the tomb robber doesn't deserve it." He muttered the last sentence under his breath, still angry at how the other spirit just accepted the way Ryou treated him, but Yami still caught it.

"I'm not so sure Shadow did deserve it, aibou. He declared that he was evil, but...his behaviour screams victim now. I'm beginning to wonder if he tried to make us hate him so we wouldn't try to rescue him from his abuser. If he was eight years old when Seraph gave him his own body was there any way he could have survived on his own?"

"No...I guess not, but..." Yugi wasn't sure why Yami was suddenly worried about Bakura, the spirit didn't act like a victim from what he'd seen, more like he was the hottest thing in the school and he knew it. "When he first met Ryou, he was seven years old, and Bakura was an adult in his soul room, but he still attacked Ryou. A decent man wouldn't do that.

"And Bakura seems to be really happy with Ryou now. He was all over him all through lunch, and you saw how protective Ryou was, and what he did for Bakura."

"I..." Yugi could see that Yami wanted to keep on arguing, but then he seemed to change his mind suddenly, no longer meeting Yugi's eyes. "You're right, aibou. Shadow is obviously happy belonging to Seraph. I...it's just, on the TV I remember seeing a program talk about Stockholm Syndrome?"

"I guess I know what you mean." Even if he couldn't imagine _Yami no Bakura_ being so badly damaged that he'd fall in love with his abuser, but if it made Yami feel better to talk about this... "But I can't imagine Ryou abusing anyone."

"Neither can I. But I can quite easily see _Seraph_ tearing someone apart and then remaking them into whatever he wanted. Ryou...Ryou doesn't exist aibou, he's just someone Seraph invented to give Shadow a chance at putting his people to rest." Yami really didn't seem happy talking about this, he wouldn't have expected that sort of concern for his enemy, Yugi sometimes cared about his enemies that way, but Yami never had before. And he still didn't get why Yami was insisting on calling Bakura by the name Shadow. Yami'd explained about why he wouldn't call Ryou by any name but Seraph, but not about Bakura.

"Is this about what Ryou wants to do to Bakura's scar?" It was the only thing that he'd thought was worrying about the way Ryou treated his 'Consort', but he hadn't realised that Yami'd noticed that.

"His scar?" Obviously not. "What about it?"

"It doesn't matter. What did you see that I didn't notice?"

Yami wasn't really listening to him, Yugi _knew_ that he was looking through his recent memories. He shrugged mentally, it wasn't as if he wanted to see anything personal, he was used to Yami sleeping while he was at school, and checking later for anything important.

"Seraph wanted to cut Shadow's face up again?" There was a look of horror on his face, it was sickening, but Bakura seemed happy with it, and it wasn't anything like as bad as some of the things Yami'd done to protect him. "And he said he didn't mind. Aibou, was it just me, or did it seem to you like they were skimming over things, making them out to not be as bad as they were when they were telling us about their history?"

"I didn't really want to know how Ryou taught Bakura his place, but wouldn't he have reacted more if it had been that bad?" Yami shut his eyes for a moment at that, then he finally looked back up at Yugi, and smiled.

"If you're sure he's okay then I won't argue with you. But could you watch him in the future?"

"Sure." There was something wrong with the way Yami'd agreed with him, but he couldn't quite say what. Yugi dismissed the thought and tried to think of something to cheer him up. "There's supposed to be some new games at the arcade since last time - want to go and check them out?"

"That sounds like fun, aibou, yes please. Do you want to invite the rest of your friends?"

"No, just the two of us, ne?"

--0--

Bakura stretched slowly, provocatively, he knew. It wasn't his place to initiate sex, but he _needed_ reassurance from Seraph, since he was convinced that there'd be some sort of effort to separate them soon, if not today. He didn't know _why_ he thought that, it wasn't rational, but...

"You _do_ realise you're just making more laundry for yourself, right?" Seraph sounded amused as he ran a hand over Bakura's lower ribs.

"I can do the sheets from this and yesterday together, along with anything else that can go in, start the machine up before we leave and hang them out when we get back, if you'll permit it." Seraph had stripped and remade the bed yesterday while he was in the bath Seraph had decided he needed after being taken, he usually did on those occasions when he decided Bakura needed pampering. "You...don't mind buying lunch today?" He usually prepared their bentos the night before, but last night that hadn't been an option. He'd have time to do Western style sandwiches if he got up now, but not if Seraph took him.

"A choice between buying lunch and not getting inside you isn't really that hard to make, my pet." And then he took Bakura's nipple into his mouth, sucking at it as he cleaned him inside and began to prepare him. Under the circumstances it was easy to relax and Seraph took him swiftly, taking him in hand as well.

"Are those drugs still affecting you Shadow?" Seraph was playing with his hair as he led Bakura towards the shower, his other arm wrapped around his waist.

"Yes." He flushed, thinking of his wanton behaviour, but knowing that Seraph had enjoyed it - and besides, his master didn't care about the aphrodisiacs. "They're still weakening me, Seraph-sama."

Seraph didn't reply, just twisting their hair up and pinning it out of the way before pulling him into the shower, and washing him carefully. Bakura returned the favour, leaning against his master a lot of the time. It was nice to have an excuse to do that and to feel Seraph supporting him.

"Stay in there for a bit." Seraph got out first and Bakura watched as he dried himself off before turning the shower off and holding a new towel out for him. "_Now_ you can get out." He stepped directly into the towel, luxuriating in the feeling of his hikari's hands on his body, drying him as if he was some precious ornament.

"Go prepare some miso soup, I'll change the bed."

"Yes Seraph-sama." Bakura pulled on his red yukata and hurried to obey. He'd just finished preparing their breakfast when he heard the thud of Seraph dropping the laundry basket in the attached room and barely kept himself from jumping. Seraph was dressed now, in deep brown leather pants and vest, a dark red silk shirt beneath the vest and a weighted belt at his waist he looked like the killer he was instead of the innocent he'd been playing.

He dished out the miso and they ate together quietly, then once Seraph had nodded permission he began to sort through the laundry. He hadn't expected Seraph to come up behind him and begin brushing through his hair, but then he'd never had hair this long before, so it had to be a new kink of his master's. Kink probably wasn't the right word, but it was the best he could think of. He made to stand after finishing sorting through the laundry, but Seraph pushed him back down to his knees.

"Just stay there until I've finished braiding your hair." His response was almost automatic.

"Yes Seraph-sama." When that was over with he went back to the bedroom to get dressed, Seraph had laid out an outfit almost identical to the previous day's, except that the silk jumper was dark purple, not dark red, and there was no jewellery.

He set his bag ready by the door for when Seraph's friends came along - assuming that they did - and went to set up the washing machine. Not that Seraph couldn't, but as far as he was concerned that was one of Bakura's duties as his Consort, doing the household chores unless Seraph decided to help in some way. On the other hand Bakura _knew_ that money would never be a problem for him, not with the fees Seraph commanded, and his generosity in allowing Bakura access to his money. Seraph already paid for a maid service to clean the house from top to bottom once a week, and he'd offered to have more than just the leather sent out for cleaning.

When his friends arrived, looking surprisingly comfortable to be walking to school beside him, Seraph scooped him up in his arms as soon as the door was locked. Bakura's arms automatically went around his neck, and he tried to hide his blushes by burying his face against Seraph's chest.

--0--

"I'm not that helpless, Seraph-sama." Yugi could barely hear Bakura's protest, muffled by Ryou's chest, over his own laughter. The yami looked almost like one of the damsels in distress the more Western TV shows sometimes included, swept up in his hikari's arms, his own arms around Ryou's neck.

"I know that Shadow," Ryou spoke teasingly, "but I can't exactly travel using that 'roofhopping' thing they did on that anime you thought was fact based with Yugi and the gang along, can I? And carrying you like this does make for a bit of a balance exercise."

- 'Roofhopping', aibou?-

:There's an anime about crazy martial artists. I'm sure you've seen it with me - Ranma Saotome, the guy who-:

-changes sex when he's hit with water, oh, now I remember, but I usually spend the time you watch TV in my soul room, either resting or working out duelling strategies.- There was a hint of apology in his yami's mental voice, there shouldn't have been but, after yesterday...

:Well, most of the martial artists on that show don't use the streets, they get about by climbing over the roofs of the houses and buildings around them. They call it roofhopping.:

-Thank you for explaining aibou.- That wasn't out of character at least, Yami was always polite to Yugi, polite and caring.

"You thought one of those martial arts anime was _accurate_?" Yugi didn't even try to hide his mixed incredulity and laughter.

"Well, _Seraph_ can do the same thing, he could even when he was seven, I saw him use that sort of method to get to more than one of his targets from an unexpected angle. And so can most of the Adepts of The Children of the Eldest, Fairest and Fallen. And I used to use the rooftops a lot back in Egypt, even if it was in a different way. So it didn't seem so strange to me." Bakura had stopped trying to hide his face against Ryou's chest by now, and had twisted to look directly at Yugi.

"Can _you_ roofhop, Bakura?" Yugi couldn't imagine doing anything like that and he didn't want to. It sounded as dangerous as a Shadow Game, even if in a small part of his mind he thought it sounded thrilling. Bakura glanced up at Seraph before he answered, almost as if he wanted permission to speak, and Yugi thought he could sense a small, swiftly repressed flare of anger from Yami on seeing that. But that didn't make sense, why would Yami try to hide his anger from _him_?

"Yes, just about any Adept above delta standard level can, and I'm a gamma standard Adept Consort. The few who can't roofhop use magic of some type far more extensively than Seraph approves of."

"The trouble with using the more elaborate sorts of magic is that it takes a lot more thought and concentration than just plain fighting, or the more minor things, like using it to boost physical abilities. It's a lot harder to turn into reflex, even if Shadow _has_ damn near managed that with sealing souls into objects." Bakura looked as if that offhand praise was worth more than getting his hands on all of the Millennium Items. "Trouble with that is that a lot of magic won't work right during testing, only the stuff that causes physical damage really works right."

"Oh." Yugi hadn't thought about anything like that.

-He's right aibou. When I was punishing people who'd threatened or hurt you I always set what I intended to do up well ahead of time.- Yami sounded a bit guilty, he usually did when he was talking about those times.

"Seraph-sama, can I at least walk the last block to school by myself?" Yugi could just imagine what the local bullies would do with that sort of ammunition, he'd been their victim often enough until Yami came along, and since Bakura _couldn't_ defend himself at the moment...

"No. I'm making a statement. I'll see you at school, okay Yugi?" Then Ryou just jumped on top of the nearest building, taking his agreement as granted. Yugi _wanted_ to see the fireworks, and he began to run the last block, getting there just in time to see Ryou jump effortlessly off the roof of the school, to land just inside the gates, Bakura still in his arms.

He was disappointed...and from the look on his face so was Ryou. Everyone was too intimidated by how he'd arrived to say anything - at least while he was there. As soon as he was out of earshot the speculation started.

--0--

Ryou felt some regret and guilt as he settled Shadow down at the desk beside his. After being carried to school like some helpless maiden it was going to be damn near impossible for him to get anyone to respect him for himself. Not that it was ever going to be easy for Shadow to convince the rougher side of the school that he was a capable fighter in his own right after how easily those idiots had manhandled him yesterday. And he hadn't even got an excuse to fight someone out of it. But at least after seeing him jump down from the roof of the school so easily people _might_ pay attention to what he'd done to the idiots. Still, it would take a few more examples like that before the lesson sunk in, and people realised what sort of thing harming his property would bring.

Shadow looked up at him, head tilted to one side, smiling, his eyes half closed in remembered pleasure. "You know, I'd almost forgotten how enjoyable that was, Seraph-sama. I didn't want to risk trying to travel that way by myself while you were limited, after all, you'd made it clear I wasn't good enough to try without someone there to compensate for any mistakes I might make." Because just a year ago Shadow would have been lucky to survive delta standard testing. That had been as much in Ryou's mind as anything else when he'd decided on how they'd spend this year.

"Would you like me to take you home over the rooftops then?" He gently stroked Shadow's scarred cheek as he spoke.

"I-if Yugi isn't going to walk with us, or you can find a way to bring him as well. It wouldn't be fair to make him walk home alone, Seraph-sama."

"Very well. And once these drugs wear off you can roofhop yourself." He couldn't say anything more, since their first lesson was starting.

He resisted the urge to touch his Consort during the lessons until P.E. - with the drugs in him Shadow wouldn't be able to help responding, and he _wasn't_ going to let his classmates look at his lover when aroused, especially not since he got so embarrassed about people seeing him. He tried to distract himself by focusing purely on his schoolwork, but since he could do the work half asleep - or with a voice in his head talking about something else, and _had_ in the past, that wasn't particularly effective.

Shadow wasn't really happy about undressing in the changing rooms at all, Ryou could tell that, even if no one else would be able to, but he knew that he had to, and made sure to do it as quickly and efficiently as he could. As a result they were among the first two out into the gym. Hitaka-san was unhappy about something, Ryou just hoped that didn't mean that he was going to make this class unpleasant as a result. He'd been looking forward to actually being able to use his full abilities in class for once.

"Apparently some of you need lessons in how to defend yourselves. You will pair up as follows." He paired the girls up first, never with the 'weakest' boys as their aggressor, or the least athletic, but not with the strongest either, then he moved on to pairing up the most 'vulnerable' boys with the rest. "Mutou as defender with Katsuya as aggressor, Bakura as defender with Hiroto as aggressor, Hiei as defender with Goto as aggressor."

"No way." Hitaka-san looked surprised when Ryou spoke up, but Goto was one of the thugs who thought he was an easy target, and there was no way he was going to let him have a free shot at Shadow.

-Seraph-sama, please, if I'm permitted to use my own methods--

:You won't be.: Ryou cut Shadow off quickly.

"Am I to understand you wish to refuse to participate?"

"No, but Bakura is ill. I won't allow you to pair him up with that goon for this. He can work with Honda, _I'll_ deal with Goto." Ryou smiled up at the teacher. "I'm a lot more dangerous than I look, if you want me to I can do that silly smashing bricks thing later."

"I'll hold you to that. Go ahead." While he continued listing off the pairs Ryou led Shadow over to his friend.

"Take care of him, we don't really need this, but at the moment he doesn't have the muscle to deal with anyone who won't _let_ him throw them. I wish Hitaka-san had held off on this for a couple of weeks, but since this is likely to be at least a two or three week course it isn't too bad."

He saw Honda smile sympathetically at Shadow, who was blushing nearly as red as his eyes, and determinedly studying the ground, as he went looking for Goto, and he realised that this would help Yugi and his friends see his Consort differently as well. When the lesson actually started he just lost himself in the pleasure of being allowed to throw the much bigger boy around.

--0--


	4. Chapter 4

Warning: Tendershipping with Ryou seme

This is AU, seriously so

:blah: hikari to yami telepathy

-blah- yami to hikari telepathy

Yami was grateful that his hikari would have the chance to at least learn _something_ about how to defend himself, even if it was only very basic. But he'd been disturbed by the way Seraph had humiliated Shadow by his words and by handing him over to _Honda_ for protection. And for all that he'd suggested that he teach Yugi how to defend himself Yami was uncomfortably aware that he had no idea how to actually teach someone how to fight even if he had his own body, let alone when he was in the same body as his pupil. He couldn't teach Yugi how to fight in their soul rooms or the Shadow Realm and expect it to carry over into the real world, he remembered that much, but he'd always had the ability to use the Millennium Puzzle to make himself stronger, and he'd taken advantage of that. Yugi couldn't do the same thing, and he had no idea why not.

-Aibou, you remember yesterday, when I suggested teaching you how to fight without Shadow Magic?- He waited until a pause in the lesson to bring the subject up.

:Yes. Have you changed your mind: His light sounded disappointed by the idea, and Yami hated to disappoint his light, but in this case he had to.

-In a way. I _can't_ teach you how to fight, I don't have a body of my own. I thought perhaps we could ask Shadow to teach you.-

:Shadow? Just a moment...: Yugi returned to actually trying to fend off Jou's 'attack' the way he'd been told to.

"Yami distracting you?"

"He thinks I need to learn how to fight without Shadow Magic-" As he was speaking Yugi completely failed to break Jou's grip the way he was supposed to.

"You do."

"From _Bakura_."

"What, wouldn't me or Honda do? Why ask an enemy?" Jou sounded offended, and Yami decided to 'speak' up.

-Neither of them thought to offer earlier, and it's an excuse to watch Shadow more closely. Aibou, do you really think I'd run risks with your safety?-

:What were you planning on:

-I'll tell you when Hitaka's gone.- The teacher was coming over, obviously not happy that Yugi and Jou had stopped practising.

"Tell you later, attack me again." The two boys began to do what they were supposed to be doing again, and Hitaka explained to Yugi what he was doing wrong, going to far as to take hold of him and pull his body into the correct position. Yami stayed in the back of Yugi's mind, watching approvingly.

"You were going to tell me why the tomb robber."

"Yami says it gives him an excuse to watch him more closely. Making sure that he really isn't dangerous I guess." That wasn't it exactly, but it _was_ an explanation the blond would be comfortable with...more comfortable than the truth anyway.

"And how's he going to keep him from taking advantage of the chance to get at you?"

"He's going to tell me that now."

-I can set up a trap with Shadow Magic that I can activate if he causes trouble, provided I have advanced access to where you're training.-

"Magic." Yami had to laugh as Yugi translated his explanation down to one word.

-Aibou?- Yami would _not_ force Yugi into interacting with someone he was afraid of, but if his hikari could bring himself to learn from Shadow _he_ would have the chance to try and figure out how consensual his relationship with Seraph really was.

:Are you asking permission or something: Yugi seemed to be amused by that and Yami refused to be embarrassed by the way he'd found himself starting to defer to a boy over 5000 years younger than him.

-You _are_ the one who has to work with and learn from him aibou.-

:I...if you think you can keep me safe with him then you can ask him to teach me at lunch. And perhaps I can learn to trust him the way you seem to.: Was that a hint of reproach in his light's mind? Yami repressed his guilt firmly. He knew that Shadow wasn't supposed to be his concern, but he was the best way to learn about _Seraph_ and he was convinced that the assassin was a potential danger.

-If you'd rather not ask him yourself aibou. But...promise me that you _will_ learn from him?-

:I promise.:

--0--

Bakura glanced at Seraph for permission before he began to unbraid his hair while his hikari went to buy their lunches. His braid had probably drawn less attention than having his hair loose did, but it made his scalp ache and he'd already drawn too much attention to live down.

:And you look better with your hair loose.: Bakura knew he was blushing as Seraph spoke into his mind unexpectedly. But at least no one seemed too surprised to see him respond to things they couldn't hear.

-Less feminine anyway Seraph-sama.- And the funny thing was that it was true, when it was loose his hair was always very wild, even immediately after brushing, and it distracted from the finely drawn bone structure underlying the elfin features he shared with Seraph. He pulled his fingers through his hair as a rough combing and shook it out just as Seraph reached him and wrapped an arm around his waist.

"Do you think we look like girls sometimes then?" Seraph sounded amused, that was a good thing, wasn't it?

"Yami thought Bakura was a woman at first yesterday, when you rescued him from those bullies." Yugi sounded half amused, and half frightened. That was funny in itself, and reminded him that having his hair loose wasn't enough to keep him from looking feminine.

"From behind, Yugi-dono?" Bakura tilted his head, letting his hair fall partially across his face, almost like a veil to hide behind. He saw the others were surprised by the term of respect, but Yugi was a hikari, if not his, and it was important to show proper respect. It would show the pharaoh how he should treat his hikari as well.

"You were kneeling with your back to us, picking up your and Ryou's books. He realised his mistake when he remembered that you were wearing rubies in your hair."

"The Adepts of the Children of the Fairest are _always_ beautiful," Seraph explained dismissively, "and since this body of Shadow's was made from mine we're almost identical. It's no surprise that he looks androgynous the way I do."

Bakura began to eat, staying silent and watching the others from beneath lowered lashes. Seraph didn't say much either, he was focusing on his meal and he'd started touching Bakura again, reminding everyone that of his claim on Bakura. Neither of them had anything to really add to the conversation anyway.

"How can you two eat that so easily, Bakura, Ryou?" Bakura looked directly at Jou in surprise at his words. The cafeteria food wasn't good, but it was edible and plentiful.

"There wasn't much food available in my first life, I'm pretty much indifferent to how my meals taste. After eating snakes and scorpions you tend to get that way." He shrugged carefully. "Besides it really doesn't taste that bad."

"Better than my cooking anyway. Shadow normally prepares bentos for us, but he didn't have time last night or this morning."

"You do the cooking for your household, Shadow?" Bakura didn't know _why_ Yugi had allowed Yami to take over his body while he was eating, but it didn't matter.

"I learned how to cook to make me less dependent on others, and so that I'd have another use besides spreading my legs for Seraph when he got old enough to want that. Seraph-sama can cook if he wishes it, but he studied more on how to make poisons of various types."

"Right." Yami finished eating quickly, and stood, moving to stand by Bakura. "I'd like to speak with you. Alone." He looked meaningfully over Bakura's head at Seraph.

"If he gets so much as a scratch while he's with you I'll make your hikari suffer the exact same damage." Bakura recognised the implied permission and stood, waiting for Yami to arrange where to meet with the others again. He shouldn't have been surprised when Yami started acting even more overprotective than Seraph usually did.

-Seraph-sama, please, can you make sure...-

:People don't remember the way he's acting? Of course my pet. Explain to him what he's doing wrong before we meet up again.:

-Yes Seraph-sama.- He didn't get a chance to say anything else, because Yami pulled him into the Shadow Realm. "W-what are we doing here?"

"I don't want Seraph to have an excuse to hurt my aibou. I can keep you safe here better than anywhere else. I wanted to ask you if you'd be willing to teach Yugi to fight without Shadow Magic."

"Why not just ask Seraph-sama?"

"Just because Yugi still trusts him doesn't mean that I do, and...I know I can use Shadow Magic to stop you if you hurt him, I don't know if I can do the same with Seraph." He hadn't understood.

"No, I meant you should have just asked Yugi-dono to ask Seraph-sama if he was willing to lend me to him as a teacher in mundane combat. He'll need to do that anyway."

"But...you're willing to teach him?"

"If he wishes it, yes." Bakura didn't understand why Yami seemed so shocked, it was his duty to serve Seraph, and he couldn't neglect that without permission. "Can we return to the normal world now, please?" _He_ couldn't defend himself here at the moment, and it scared him.

"If you want to." As soon as they had returned to school Yami dragged him back to Seraph, before yielding his body to Yugi.

--0--

-Aibou, you should ask Seraph now.- Yugi really didn't like how insistent Yami was being on this, he knew that Yami would protect him, but he didn't _like_ the Tomb Robber, or trust him one inch. -Please, aibou.-

:Okay Yami.: When he turned to the two white-haired boys Bakura was acting weird, almost guilty and they had to be talking to each other over their mind link, it didn't make sense otherwise. Suddenly Ryou smiled and reached out to stroke Bakura's hair, and kiss his unscarred cheek gently.

"It's alright, my pet. They might take more notice if it's _me_ telling them and I need to make sure everyone knows anyway I guess. But..." Bakura looked scared for a second then, not the big 'I'm-gonna-DIE' scared, but just the everyday 'I've-got-a-test-I-didn't-study-for' scared. "when these drugs wear off the maid service won't be coming that week."

"Thank you for being so generous Seraph-sama." Bakura was smiling at that, looking relieved at what Ryou'd said. Yugi didn't get it. And neither did Jou.

"What was that about you two?" Bakura didn't say anything until he'd looked at Ryou and his hikari had nodded permission.

"I disobeyed an order that Seraph-sama gave me, so as punishment when I'm recovered from these drugs I'll have to do the stuff our maid service usually does on their weekly visit. It's nothing serious, just vacuuming, dusting, cleaning the woodwork perhaps. A lot of Consorts and concubines are expected to do that sort of thing all the time."

"He was supposed to explain to Yami why it's a bad thing for anyone but me to act the way he was when he led Shadow from the table."

"Mou hitori no boku was being a bit overprotective, wasn't he?" And now Yami was virtually radiating his sense of guilt.

"Yes. And it would have made people think my Consort was a slut if I hadn't made them forget what they saw. I swear, if _anyone_ does something like that again I'll convince the entire school that I've got a fucking _harem_. Yugi, don't you have something you want to ask me?" Ryou sounded angry as he finished speaking.

"Y-yes. Yami asked Bakura if he'd be willing to teach me how to fight without using Shadow Magic, and Bakura said I had to ask you if you'd let him?" Yugi cursed how uncertain he sounded, and tried to show more confidence as he continued. "Will you? Even though Yami wants to set up a Shadow Magic trap in case there's a problem." He had the feeling that this might make Ryou say no, and he was glad about it, even if the surprise on Bakura's face told him that Yami hadn't mentioned that earlier.

"Yami wants it? Yet he didn't mention it to Shadow." Did Ryou think he was lying or something? "Yes, you can learn from Shadow. I'll even allow that insult, provided you _never_ complain about how he decides to teach you, and obey without question during the lessons, even if it doesn't seem to make sense."

-I...I won't try to influence you aibou, but can you ask a bit more about what the term Consort actually means?-

"I'd like some time to think about it. And, mou hitori no boku wants me to ask what the term Consort really means, I guess he wants to know what makes a Consort different to a concubine."

"You have until these drugs wear off to decide, you _have_ to give your decision the first day you see him wearing the sort of jewellery he had on yesterday. Shadow can explain to you about Consorts and concubines."

"Basically a Consort or a concubine to an Adept of The Children of the Eldest, Fairest and Fallen is the equivalent of a traditional wife. The duties of such a position are to be sexually available to whichever Adept claims you at all times, however it is desired, and to take care of the household, which can range from being kept in a tiny apartment, and being expected to always have it immaculate, to living with your master, as I do, and cooking, doing the laundry and doing the grocery shopping.

"The major difference between the three classes, Adept Consorts, Consorts and concubines are that Consorts and Adept Consorts are expected to be able to fight to a specified standard, Consorts and Adept Consorts both at one point were able to function effectively as back-up for their Adept, within the last five years for pure Consorts.

"Adept Consorts are pretty rare, if a Consort isn't good enough to be effective back-up five years after testing he or she's normally allowed to drop to concubine level. As an Adept Consort I can be asked to Work _if_ Seraph-sama gives his approval.

"There's just one other difference, an Adept can have only one Consort, but many concubines, and both concubines and Consorts can be lent to another, for any purpose, but it's more...important if a Consort is lent to another than if a concubine is."

That was weird, but no one had time to ask anything else, because they had to get to class.

--0--

Ryou smiled to himself at how anxious for his touch Shadow was acting as they went back to their classroom. He knew that the almost ostentatious show of affection and attention was a response to the way Yami had treated him earlier, and the sort of speculations that could start, as much as an apology for his mistake and need for reassurance after explaining what his position was. Still, if he was upset enough to start the sort of public shows he _hated_; and Ryou had always known how much Shadow hated being touched like a lover, even if it wasn't at all indecent, when people were watching; he needed reassurance badly. The funny thing about Shadow's reluctance to be touched around others was that it was the thing that always worked best to make him feel better, Ryou knew that for a fact. With the drugs still in Shadow's system...he made a point of keeping his touches non-arousing, an arm around his shoulders or waist pulling him in for a hug every so often, and running his fingers through Shadow's long, beautiful hair. Soon enough he could sense Shadow's anxiety, almost fear, fading away, to be replaced with soft contentment.

"Bakura-kun." He looked up at Nishima-sensei, absently wondering what she wanted, still more focused on his Consort than anything else.

"Yes, Nishima-sensei?" He was at least certain that she wasn't calling on him to read aloud. He was good at multi-tasking, and he'd been monitoring what was happening in class as well as taking care of Shadow.

"Please stop molesting Hiei-kun. He can't be very comfortable with the way you're groping him in front of everyone." And right on cue Shadow's emotions shifted to depression, coupled with a creeping sense of shame.

"I was not groping him. And for your information he _was_ comfortable, until you implied I was doing something wrong by touching him. Shadow...needed comfort, my touching him gives him that. Now you've got him afraid he's doing something wrong by needing me to comfort him." He let his voice drop, casting a quick spell to keep unwelcome ears from hearing what he was saying. "You know he's had a rough life. The past year he's been catching up on all the schooling he missed on the streets, and a normal school environment still disturbs him at times."

-You make me sound weak Seraph-sama. Do...you really see me that way?-

"Shadow? And exactly why did you need 'comfort' Hiei-kun?"

:No, of course not, but it's an explanation she'll understand. Besides none of our classmates will hear as long as we speak quietly. But just refer to me as Ryou when you give her a story.: Ryou thought for a moment, yes Nishima-sensei was married. "Don't you use a pet name for your husband?" He spoke loudly enough that everyone would hear, and smiled as she blushed.

"Yesterday, one of the school bully-boys tried to molest me, I think it would have gone further if Ser-Ryou hadn't interrupted. I managed to avoid being raped when I was on the streets, but I saw a gang rape victim once, and at the moment I can't really defend myself against more than two at a time, at best. Yugi wanted to talk to me away from Ryou, and..." Shadow trailed off for a moment, before continuing in the same near whisper. "we overheard a couple of them speculating about what I was like in bed. And it sounded..." Shadow even managed to fake a blush as he trailed off again. Or maybe it wasn't faked. But he _felt_ half amused, not ashamed anymore, and she seemed to be buying it.

"Could you tell who was talking about you?" Her voice had dropped to a similar pitch, she was trying to be discrete.

"How could I? I only heard them, I haven't been here long enough to recognise voices." Shadow frowned then, showing a calculated uncertainty. -Should I refer to you as my boyfriend Seraph-sama?-

:Yes.:

"How is it indecent for my boyfriend to stroke my hair?" He raised his voice just enough to be heard through the classroom, and Ryou smiled as he realised how this would look to Yugi and his friends. "It isn't as if we can't concentrate on our work while he's doing that."

She didn't seem to have an answer for that, and no one else bothered them for the rest of the day - or at least no other teachers bothered them.

--0--

Bakura refused to let his feelings about the arrogant bitch who'd interrupted them show, even through his link to his master. He knew that Seraph had to be at least a little pissed at her too, and he didn't want to risk compounding it, or have it transferred to him. One of the few times he'd actually been _enjoying_ the way his master treated his body like his toy in front of everyone and anyone, and that woman had to go and ruin it. Not to mention his slip when he'd been instructed to use Seraph's personal name.

:It's all right my pet. I'm not angry, not at you anyway.: Seraph looked at Nishima with a cold anger in his eyes, all the time keeping up with his soothing touches.

-But...I slipped with the name-- It was stupid of him to bring that up, he knew, but he didn't want to risk the issue coming up again later.

:That was _good_, even if you didn't plan it. It sounded like you had some sappy nickname for me, but were embarrassed to use it, especially after she slapped me down for calling you Shadow.: And Bakura revelled in the approval Seraph was sending to him. It wasn't too much later that the lesson finished, and they all stood to bow to the teacher as she left. Then Yugi and his groupies came over to them and Bakura repressed the urge to sigh. He should try to get on better with them, after all they were Seraph's friends, and he was probably going to have to teach Yugi how to fight.

"Yami said you'd used Shadow Magic?"

"Yes, for the same reason I did yesterday, so that no one would hear what we were saying to that woman. I wanted one less reason for gossip to spread about us." Seraph's voice was hard, with contained anger, but that wasn't a bad thing. Not when Bakura knew for certain that the anger was directed elsewhere.

"Right. We're going to that new arcade right after school's out. Do you two want to come with us?"

Bakura glanced at Seraph from the corner of his eyes, a trick he'd perfected over the years he'd belonged to him, he could see that his hikari was tempted by Jou's invitation, but...

"We can't. Shadow was damn near exhausted after school yesterday." School and being fucked through the mattress, and he _hadn't_ been as exhausted as Seraph seemed to think. "I'm sorry."

-Seraph-sama, you don't have to stay at home to take care of me or anything. You could drop me off at home, then join the others at the arcade. And...- Bakura was really hesitant about his next suggestion since it wasn't his place to invite guests, but... -I think there's enough meat out for me to cook a meal for everyone if you'll tell me when to expect you.-

:Good idea pet.: Seraph kissed him lightly before he spoke to the others. "I can't come _with_ you lot, but I can join you after I've dropped Shadow off at home. And he's offered to cook for us all, for say, half past six?"

"Yeah, that sounds great. What'll we be having?" Jou sounded eager, not too surprising considering what his home life was like, and the rest agreed as well.

"I dressed three rabbits from the traps last night and this morning, will that be enough for the six of us?" Seraph was looking at Bakura as he waited for the answer.

"It should be," even with Jou's appetite, "especially if I make other stuff to go with it, or there's another one or two in the traps when we get home. Roasted rabbit then?"

"If you wish it." Bakura frowned, thinking about what food they had stored. -We'll need to get some more vegetables and fruit tomorrow, and it would be good if you could do another hunt, it's been two months since the last time.-

"Get back to your seats please." This teacher was short for a man, even here, in Japan, and he looked friendly, but Bakura remembered that he was a disciplinarian, no wonder the others almost ran back to their seats. "There will be no inappropriate displays in my classes Bakura-kun. I have heard about, and been disappointed by, your behaviour and treatment of Hiei-kun, and I expect you to keep your hands to yourself."

"Yes Himura-sensei." Seraph even managed to keep any resentment out of his voice, probably a result of playing 'Ryou' for a year.

--0--


	5. Chapter 5

Warning: Tendershipping with Ryou seme

This is AU, seriously so

Chaos-chick3 Ryou's always been stronger than Bakura, if you read chapter one again, particularly the flashback you'll see he beat Bakura up the first time they met. But for the past year Seraph has been wearing power binders, as mentioned in chapter 2 I think, which worked like constantly carrying weights, improving his power, but preventing him from using it. So, he hasn't really been weaker than Bakura, but for the past year he might as well have been.

:blah: hikari to yami telepathy

-blah- yami to hikari telepathy

Yugi'd got the top score on all of the new games except one by six. The only game he wasn't the best at was a shooting game where the joystick was a gun. Ryou'd started on that one as soon as it came free, abandoning his other game halfway through to get it, and he was still on it two and a half hours later. He'd died after ten minutes the first time, but than he'd seemed to figure it out, and he hadn't died since, getting through each level in turn progressively faster, and only hesitating slightly when the machine started to cycle through the levels again.

"Come on Yugi. If Bakura-kun's cooking for us we don't want to be late." Trust Anzu to be the first to use the familiar suffix. "And we're going to need a few minutes to fight through Ryou-kun's audience." He'd drawn the sort of crowd _Yugi_ usually drew. And when they finally got to the oddly clear space around Ryou he could see why. In a display of breathtaking arrogance Ryou had blindfolded himself at some point, and was working just from the sounds, and memory. Just as he was about to step into the cleared area a woman grabbed him back.

"Don't, he pushes anyone who crowds him away."

"We're his friends." Honda ignored the warning, and pushed past Yugi into the open area. But he didn't say anything, and when he reached out to put his hand on Ryou's shoulder the smaller boy just took hold of his wrist, and almost absently tossed him into the crowd on the other side.

-Let me aibou.- Yugi was more than happy to let Yami get Ryou's attention. What he was doing right now was more than a little frightening and Yugi watched from inside Yami in growing horror as the spirit summoned a tiny ball of Shadow Magic, no more than the width of their thumb across and threw it at Ryou. What was even more shocking was when it got just a foot away from his friend and disappeared in a flash of light. But it did get Ryou's attention, he pulled off the blindfold and turned his head to Yami, still somehow keeping a perfect score.

"Something you need to say to me?"

"Isn't your boyfriend supposed to have a meal waiting for us in..." Yami pointedly looked at the watch they were wearing, "oh, twenty minutes Seraph?"

"Fuck, yeah." And he abandoned the game just like that, pushing through the crowd better than Jou and Honda had managed together, pulling everyone with him.

"That's one game we're never going to get top score on, me or Yami." Yugi laughed when Yami yielded their body back to him. "How the hell did you manage to do _that_?"

Ryou looked a little insulted by the question. "I am an assassin after all, even if I think depending on weapons is a bad idea I know how to use them. The first game, I was getting used to the feel of the 'gun', then the first run through I more or less memorised what was happening, without realising it. Second time through I was checking that nothing had changed, then I knew what I needed to do. And I don't need to depend on just one sense."

-Aibou, what about what he did to my Shadow Magic?-

:You didn't know he could do that: Yugi was almost shouting at Yami through their link, outraged at the idea.

-I expected him to do what I would, or Bakura would, dodge it, or put up a shield of Shadow Magic, and even if it hit it wasn't enough to do more than sting. I didn't expect him to use a different type of magic, or do that, whatever it was.- And now Yami sounded anxious to calm him and justify his actions.

"What does Yami want now?" Ryou sounded oddly patient, almost resigned as he asked the question, Yugi didn't quite get it.

"What did you do to that Shadow Magic he threw at you?"

"Burned it away." Ryou laughed as he replied. "My original magic was Light Magic and healing, Shadow Magic is a melding of Light Magic and Dark Magic, so once I learned about it I was able to use it, although I'll never have the power with Shadow Magic that I do with Light Magic, or that even my Shadow has. I don't know about you, whether or not you can get access to Shadow Magic in your own right, but you probably can, or you wouldn't be able to assemble the Puzzle. I'd guess that my power level with Light Magic is a few notches above your Yami's with Shadow Magic." That idea was scary, but they'd reached Ryou's house by then, and Bakura opened the door, letting Ryou kiss him demandingly.

--0--

Bakura was startled to find their guests still waiting outside the door when Seraph finished kissing him. He supposed that at some level he'd expected them to act like Adepts and just walk in while his master had been enjoying him.

"Please, come in." He stepped back from the door, glancing after Seraph as the others removed their... "Shoes Katsuya."

"Ooops, sorry." He'd sounded like some traditional housewife, but Jou had responded to that, and it even had Yugi and Anzu looking at him approvingly. "You promised us dinner, we're not late or anything are we?"

"No, actually, it'll be ten to fifteen minutes. I started the stuff that would be spoiled if it cooks for too long when Seraph-sama told me you'd started off from the arcade. I need to get back to the kitchen, but I'll show you to the living room first." He frowned as he spoke, wishing that Seraph had waited long enough to do that himself. They were all quiet as he led them to where his hikari was waiting, but Anzu didn't go in with the others, instead she put a hand on his arm, stopping him as he turned to leave.

"Wait, can you show me where the toilet is first? I don't like using public toilets." She was blushing just a little as she explained, but he could empathise. He'd been cornered once or twice by Adepts in communal toilets, and even if they hadn't done more than touch him it had still made his skin crawl.

"This way." He led her to the appropriate room, wincing as he realised that today might not have been the best time to invite anyone to dinner, since the maid service were due tomorrow, but he shrugged and dismissed it, returning to his cooking. He'd decided to go for traditional British vegetables and such to go with the rabbit, rather than anything Asian, it worked better with the way he was cooking the rabbit. He didn't want to risk losing track of the time by being around Seraph, so he picked up the project he'd begun working on again. He'd already spotted a couple of bugs in latest iteration of the firewall code, and he was sure there were more that he hadn't found yet. He'd started taking on projects like this a couple of years back, they were nowhere near as well-paid as Work, but Seraph allowed him to keep _half_ of what they brought in for himself, and he'd promised to allow the same with any Work he was asked to do.

-Seraph, I'm just about finished cooking.- He knew that his hikari would bring their guests through to the dining room while he took the meal to the table. He'd already set the rabbits out, and there were six place settings ready, he'd decided Western style cutlery would be best in this case, but if anyone asked he had chopsticks on a side table.

"Mmm, this is great Bakura. Never would have thought _you_ were such a good cook." It hadn't been at all surprising that Jou was the first to try the unfamiliar food, Honda seemed more reluctant to try it, but after Jou's endorsement he began eating too.

"Yes Bakura-kun, this is very good. Can you give me the recipes? Especially for how you did the vegetables, I haven't had vegetables like this outside of a fancy restaurant."

"I...I wasn't trying to show off, but yes, of course you can." He was blushing, at least a little, he could tell from the faint smile on Seraph's face. "Yugi-dono, if you do not wish to try the rabbit you could allow Yami to eat it in your stead perhaps?" He suspected that the pharaoh would be grateful to taste anything, and far less likely to be fussy than Yugi was, after all, he vaguely remembered seeing the court hunting for the Pharaoh's table when he was first learning to be a thief, and how they'd collected the rabbits as well as more 'noble' animals.

All his suggestion got him was a scowl, and then Yugi did begin to eat, reluctantly at first, but then with increasing eagerness. In a way that was more of a compliment than Jou's wolfing it down, or even Anzu's asking for the recipes, because he trusted Bakura so little. After that Seraph was the one who led the conversation for the most part, keeping to Duel Monsters, and other things that Bakura could actually talk about with the teenagers. He flashed his hikari a grateful smile when he realised this, at least Seraph was keeping him from being ignored - well, except for by Yugi.

When everyone had finished eating he pushed back from the table and began clearing it.

"No Bakura-kun, don't." Anzu put a hand on his arm, and he looked up in surprise before she continued. "You cooked, we can clear the table and wash the dishes. Can't we, Jou, Honda, Yugi?" He wasn't sure why she hadn't included Seraph, but he was relieved by that, and he could sense Seraph's amusement.

"Anzu, there's a desert as well, just wait and I'll get it."

"No. We'll _help_." Seraph laughed as she determinedly pulled two plates away from him, and stood, picking up the heaviest of the serving plates. Yugi was the last to move from his seat.

--0--

Yami hadn't expected Shadow to suggest that Yugi allow him to eat the meal he'd prepared, why would he? After all the other yami had made it very clear what he thought their relationship should be. But he didn't allow himself to hope he'd be permitted that, he'd been allowed to control their body more in the last two days than in the two _months_ before that. Usually he was only in charge long enough to duel an opponent, or protect his hikari, he knew better than to try and steal his body for anything but that. But it did motivate Yugi to start eating, and stop being so uncharacteristically rude.

For a while at least, he still ignored everything that Shadow said, and when he got up to clear the table and Anzu offered their help Yami began to wonder if he wasn't going to help at all.

-Aibou...- He trailed off, he didn't know how to put it into words, and besides he was the _last_ person to talk about manners.

:You do it. I can't handle Bakura at the moment.: And he retreated into his soul room, only pausing for a moment to ask one last question. :Did you want to take my place for this dinner:

-Only if you wanted me to aibou.- And then Yami took over their body, picking up what was left on the table and following the others through to the kitchen, where he was met with a raised eyebrow from Shadow.

"Put the butter in the fridge, any uneaten food in the bin, the cutlery in the sink, and stack the plates beside the sink, same for the bowls." Yami hadn't expected _Seraph_ to be the one to organise this, but the blunt order didn't seem at all out of place, and it reassured him in a way. It hinted at more equality in how the chores were apportioned than Shadow's earlier words had implied. Anzu was soon scraping the plates, while Jou organised them, and as Yami began to follow Seraph and Honda on their retreat back to the dining room a print-out made up of seemingly random numbers and letters caught his eye.

"Put that back!" Shadow sounded pissed, somehow noticing what Yami was doing even as he took a tray set with six small bowls from the fridge.

"I apologise, but what is it?"

"Nothing you'd understand Pharaoh. I highly doubt you understand anything about computers other than how to play games on them." Yami found himself flushing at how accurate that assessment was. "Suffice it to say that you could have ruined a lot of my work. And it's one of the few things it's acceptable for even concubines to do." Something he wouldn't have lost if he'd failed this 'testing' that Seraph and Shadow put such value on. "I shouldn't have left it there, but...I was working on it while I watched the vegetables." Yami couldn't think of anything to say to that, and when Shadow turned to take the tray to the table he followed. They were the last two to reach the table, and he wasn't sure he liked the amusement in Seraph's eyes as Shadow gracefully served a bowl of what looked like some sort of chocolate desert to everyone.

He shut his eyes to savour the heavenly taste, rich, dark, almost bitter chocolate, with an underlying hint of mint. His first taste of food in 5000 years was more than worth it. Not that he had much to compare it with, but even if he'd had nothing to compare it with he'd know just how perfect this was.

"If you ever need a cover story for how you make your money you can always claim to be a professional cook, Shadow. No one who's tasted anything like this would doubt you."

"I already have a cover story Pharaoh. You saw it in the kitchen." Shadow laughed as he replied, and Yami could see the humour. "But thank you for the compliment anyway."

"I'm lucky that Shadow has a real talent for cooking. _I_ certainly don't. You know he never uses the store bought stuff for anything, he made the gravy from scratch for instance, and he bakes all our bread from scratch too." From Anzu's reaction that had to be impressive. "Yami, if your hikari can't be polite to Shadow over a _meal_ do you really think there's any chance he'll be able to learn from him?"

:I'll keep my promise.: Yugi spoke up from inside his soul room. :I just don't want to interact with him socially.:

"He says that he can." Yami wasn't going to pass on the other part of the message.

"He should know that the first lesson will be totally exhausting, and it could last all day." Shadow was frowning. "To my knowledge Yugi-dono is not aware of his magic as we are, and it's easiest, at this stage to teach him to be aware of his ki instead. Later he can extend that to Shadow Magic, which might well be a better power source for him."

"I...then would I be able to learn how to use ki as well as Shadow Magic?"

"At the moment, no, you have no personal ki." Seraph's voice range with authority. "But let's change the subject, we're boring our friends."

When they'd all finished eating Jou insisted on washing the dishes, and even managed to get Honda to agree to help. Shadow went back with them to supervise.

--0--

Ryou had enjoyed the last four days, even with having to guard Shadow when he restocked the groceries on Wednesday since he was still weakened. Until Tuesday Shadow had always been so punctilious about never initiating sex, not even just by trying to arouse him, even under the influence of aphrodisiacs, and he'd never clung so closely to Ryou as he had since then. Ryou didn't think it was just feeling vulnerable because of the effects of the drugs he'd been given either, or he'd have let Ryou refuse to go to that arcade after school on Tuesday instead of suggesting that he stay at home, and cook for the gang. The gang! That was it, the key. Shadow had been acting like the perfect trophy around Yugi and his friends, and he'd done his very best _not_ to be caught alone with any of them. Now that he knew what was behind some of his Consort's behaviour, the public displays of affection anyway he could relax. The others had stopped walking to school with them when they realised how good Ryou was at roofhopping, and he scooped Shadow up into his arms before they set out.

The school had already gotten used to the flashy way they arrived, and no one even seemed to notice after the second day, when Ryou'd carried Shadow to school again as he'd almost collapsed the night before after making their bentos up. Ryou had ended up easing his guilt by _asking _if Shadow wanted him to put him down a block from school and walk that last bit beside him. Shadow had told him that it was a bit too late to try and save his reputation that way, he'd have to get a proper reputation himself after the drugs wore off.

Yugi and his friends arrived just a few minutes later, and the others waited near the door while Yugi, or his body, came over to them. There were none of the subtle changes in his hair, and the eyes were still violet, so it was probably Yugi, but both he and Shadow could make enough changes to be mistaken for the other, or use glamor as needed.

"Hello Bakura, Ryou," So it was Yugi, Yami was the only one who addressed them by their usenames in conversation, everyone else used their personal names. "I just wanted to say that I'm willing to accept your terms for lessons." If it had been Yami Shadow would be nuzzling at Ryou's neck by now, instead he barely looked up from his bag.

"I'll tell you where and when the first lesson will start after Shadow's recovered then." Yugi looked surprised, had he expected Ryou to let Shadow make the decisions about lessons himself?

"Seraph-sama has to know more or less where I am, and when, because I'd be too good a lever if any of his rivals got their hands on me. It's a bit like the way Kaiba-san is so careful about his younger brother Yugi-dono." Shadow somehow managed to make his admittedly damn near psychotic possessiveness into a mixture of sweetness and enlightened self-interest. Ryou would _not_ laugh at the look of revelation on Yugi's face.

Instead he reached out, pulling his Consort to him for a kiss, licking lightly at that delicious scar, and the tasty lipstick painting it red. Shadow leaned into the kiss, looking at Yugi almost defiantly from beneath lowered lashes. The kid blushed, and mumbled some excuse before leaving, all too obviously embarrassed. No wonder he couldn't control his yami properly.

"How much longer do you think those drugs will affect you for my pet?" It wasn't a fair question, and Ryou knew that, but he also knew that Shadow was one hell of a lot more aware of his body than even most Adepts, and he seemed to be more sensitive to his own biochemistry than Seraph, than any angelic, was to anyone's.

"I'm not entirely certain Seraph-sama, but...perhaps another two weeks, the effects have fallen to perhaps a quarter of what they were, and it feels like a half life thing, the effects falling by half every so many days." A lot of drugs worked like that, others worked more linearly, and some increased the effects until they were dissipated somehow.

"Good. That gives us time to work out exactly how you're going to teach Yugi to sense his ki. I'll check the records for methods to teach such an old student. You can try to find somewhere suitable to teach him - over the phone and internet of course."

"As you wish Seraph." Shadow smiled at him obediently.

--0--

Bakura stretched out at Seraph's feet while they did their homework for the weekend. It felt nice to be doing this with his hikari, almost as if they were equals, stupid as that was. But he'd _never_ been doing the same sort of work as Seraph before. Seraph bent down to stroke his hair and he nuzzled into his hikari's hand affectionately.

"Will you be alright tomorrow, when I go hunting?"

"Yes Seraph-sama." This was one reason they had to get their homework done now, most of Sunday would be taken up by the household chores. "I need to prepare some more noodles and bread anyway." He'd get the noodles to the point when they were ready to go into a stir fry, then freeze them in one person servings, and he'd get the bread dough to the point where it needed to rise before freezing it. "And I can wash my hair and leave it to dry over the course of the day. But you'll need to get back soon enough for us to get some more fruit and vegetables."

"Not a problem my pet. Any particular type of meat you'd like?"

"Can you get some fish please Seraph-sama. A tuna perhaps, or some smaller fish, and some large red meat."

"I'll see what I can do." There was a pause then, perhaps half an hour while they did some solid work. "I'm finished, you?"

"Not quite." But he still knelt and put his books aside. "I'll be here all day tomorrow." Seraph would activate the spell on the house that kept him from leaving before he went hunting. It protected him as well as imprisoning him, it meant no one with any significant magic of their own would be able to enter the house. "I can finish my work off sometime then." He could tell when his master wanted sexual release, and nothing else mattered then.

"Good." Seraph opened his yukata, pressing Bakura's face to his groin, and he took the hint, first nuzzling there, and then licking, before finally taking his hikari into his mouth. "I think you'd best start wearing your uniform next week. It was fun dressing you up and seeing the way people reacted this week, but we can't flout the rules for too long, and going to school helps a lot with our cover."

Bakura felt vaguely insulted that Seraph could be so coherent while he was pleasuring him, and redoubled his efforts, until all Seraph was doing was moaning, and controlling his movements through a tight hold on his hair. Bakura swallowed Seraph's seed when he released, then sat back on his heels, watching and waiting. Seraph might be happy with just getting off once and let him get back to his homework, or he might want more, Bakura just couldn't tell. Either way, when Seraph's hold on his hair relaxed and morphed into a gentle stroking he just shut his eyes and leaned into it, enjoying the touch.

He was surprised when Seraph's hands moved to his waist and hauled him up into Seraph's lap, but he still kept his eyes closed, and switched to nuzzling into the side of Seraph's neck as one hand reached into his yukata, working at him until he climaxed.

"Open your mouth my pet." Seraph's voice was amused, and he obeyed, eyes still closed, taking the offered hand into his mouth, licking and sucking until it was clean. He felt it when Seraph's hand returned to his groin to collect more of his seed, and they repeated the cycle until Seraph was satisfied - and aroused again, just as Bakura was feeling new stirrings himself. He was expecting his hikari to bend him over the couch arm or something, but instead he just returned to petting Bakura, and the thief relaxed and let himself enjoy it.

He vaguely wondered where Seraph had got the oil when his yukata was pushed right open and he felt the familiar cleaning spell just as an oiled finger slid into his entrance, but that didn't matter, especially not when Seraph hit the right spot and began the slow process of adding more fingers.

"Just enjoy yourself." With Seraph's whisper in his ear and mind Bakura didn't even try to keep from climaxing as the assassin finger-fucked him on his knee. Then he slid off Seraph's lap under the urging of the other's hands, kneeling as Seraph thrust into the mass of his white hair.

"You really will need to wash your hair tomorrow now." He laughed, running a hand through the semen covered tangle, and let Bakura return to his schoolwork and later the firewall code.

--0--


	6. Chapter 6

Warning: Tendershipping with Ryou seme

This is AU, seriously so

Chaos-chick3 The thing is I don't have too much about how Yami and Yugi interact before Shadow and Seraph 'come out' so to speak. But Yugi does think a lot about the new deference Yami keeps on showing him. I mention other Adepts, and Seraph fully intends to take the excuse to probably cripple Solar for what he did to Shadow. Bakura will explain about ki during the first lesson he gives Yugi, but it's just the energy generated when a soul is in a body.

:blah: hikari to yami telepathy

-blah- yami to hikari telepathy

-Aibou, could we go to visit Shadow and Seraph today?- Yugi wished that Yami would just use their names, and he _really_ didn't get why Yami was so interested in them, why he was making such a fuss about the way Ryou acted towards Bakura. He hadn't cared that much when they were afraid Bakura was hurting Ryou.

:No mou hitori no boku. I've got homework and the rest of the gang's coming around for a homework party. We can't go visit them.:

-Then why not call them, and ask them to join you? You invited Seraph sometimes when he was pretending to be Ryou.- Yami was being much more persistent than he would be on something like this normally. Strange since he'd become _less_ insistent in other things.

:I don't like Bakura, don't like him, don't trust him. _You_ don't like Ryou anymore.:

-He isn't...never mind. Please aibou, can't you at least call them?-

:No: Yugi only realised how harsh he'd sounded when he felt Yami almost flinch away in his mind. His other self shouldn't be reacting like that. But he had ever since Bakura'd started appearing at school. It wasn't fair that the tomb robber got his own body and Yami didn't. Wait a second, if Ryou had somehow managed to give Bakura his own body couldn't he do the same thing for _Yami_:Are you trying to get on their good side so they'll give you a body of your own mou hitori no boku:

-I...I hadn't even thought about it.- He sounded hesitant again, something that was happening far too often for Yugi's taste since Bakura'd stopped trying to kill them all. -I don't trust Seraph enough to ask him. Not now that I know he's been lying to us and pretending to be someone he isn't for a year. I...he was unnerving even before that, especially after we learned there was a spirit sealed in the Ring.- Yami'd always been unhappy about Yugi's loose friendship with Ryou, he'd even gone so far as to try and kill both of them, Ryou, and Bakura through him once or twice, but he'd never explained why he didn't like Ryou and Yugi'd just assumed it was a stranger thing, then about Bakura. -Now he terrifies me.-

:Terrifies you? Why: He'd never known Yami to be scared except for his sake, not and admit it so freely.

-I can't explain it. But he told you that his Light Magic is stronger than my Shadow Magic, and he can use Shadow Magic too, as well as his healing abilities. I know you've been scared of me at times for how inhuman my use of Shadow Magic makes me. I think it's the same thing in part. And Seraph _told_ us that he's an assassin, he's killed a lot of people, and he sounds _proud_ of it.-

:Then why are you so insistent on treating him like a friend, inviting him here: Ryou _was_ his friend, but from what Yami said he didn't share the sentiment.

-I'm not. I want _Shadow_ to know he could have friends, one at least, and I doubt Seraph will allow him to come alone.- It felt almost as if Yami was pouting, or sulking. -You seem to feel the same way about Shadow that I feel about Seraph, one's a necessary evil to have much contact with the other.- He...was right. Yugi was reluctant to accept it, but Yami was right.

:You can phone them and invite them over then.: And he retreated to his soul room, if Yami managed to find their number, and actually use the phone, then persuade them to come over...he wouldn't complain. And he'd even talk to Bakura if that happened. Yugi felt a little bit smug over how he'd made sure he wouldn't have to deal with the tomb robber while appearing to give Yami a chance at what he wanted.

Then Yami did something he hadn't expected. Yugi'd assumed his pride would have kept him from asking anyone for help and admitting that he didn't know how to use even the simplest of modern technology. He went looking for Jiisan, not Kaasan, she didn't know about the Millennium Items, but Jiisan.

"Jiisan, do you have time to help me?" Yami'd found him in the Game Shop, and Yugi hoped he'd say no. Yami would have to accept that.

"What do you need Yugi?"

"It's Yami, and could you help me phone Bakura Ryou please?"

--0--

Yami knew he was blushing as he asked for help doing something that his hikari and all his friends considered as simple as writing a letter had been back in his time, but he wouldn't let his pride get in the way of trying to reach out to Shadow. If he could befriend him, show him that he had alternatives he might be able to get the other yami out of what he was convinced was an abusive relationship.

"Why isn't Yugi doing this for you?" Normally his hikari dealt with all of ordinary life, and Yami was mostly content to have it so. If he ever resented it that he only truly lived when Yugi allowed it he would never allow it to show.

"H-he doesn't like Shadow, and I want to invite both Shadow and Seraph to study with us." Jiisan didn't understand. "Seraph is Ryou's real name, and Shadow is the name of the Spirit of the Ring."

"The same spirit who's tried to kill you? I can see why he'd be worried."

"I...it isn't like that. Shadow won't be trying again. He was allowed one year to try to get all the Items and 'lay his people to rest' is how Seraph put it. And that year is up. I trust him to teach Yugi to fight without Shadow Magic." And that had been the best argument he could make, because Jiisan guided him through the intricacies of making a phone call, so he'd be able to do it himself in the future.

"Thank you Jiisan." He smiled at the old man and turned his attention to the phone.

"Hello?" Yami was relieved that Shadow'd answered, not Seraph.

"Hello Shadow, it's Yami. Yugi is having a homework party with his friends, and I wondered if you and Seraph would like to come?" Yami couldn't understand why the idea of seeing Shadow again, even if it was just through Yugi, was so appealing to him, or why he was so nervous about making this call.

"I'm sorry, we can't. Seraph-sama's off on a hunting trip to stock up on meat for us, and I've got a whole bunch of cooking to do. We did all our homework last night. Besides, my hair's absolutely soaking. Perhaps another time?"

"I see. Next time Yugi decides to do this I'll try and get him to issue invitations to you two in advance." Which would only happen if he knew about it, but he could try. "What about after your hair dries? Will you be able to do anything then?"

"Ah, no. Since he's off on a hunting trip Seraph-sama activated a set-spell on the house. I can't leave until he takes the spell down, unless I'm in imminent danger from being in here."

"Set-spell? No, I don't want to know, do I?" Yami quelled the outrage he felt at the way Seraph had simply imprisoned Shadow for however long he was away. He knew he was finding any excuse to keep Shadow on the phone, and he didn't know why, but he didn't really care either.

"Probably not." Laughter filled Shadow's voice as he answered. "And before you think about coming around to offer me company, the other thing the set-spell does is keep out anyone with magic of any type even half so powerful as mine, and anyone with a ki-level more than half mine. That is half mine under normal circumstances. Seraph's being paranoid I think, but if it makes him happy..." Yami didn't think he could accept living like that, but Shadow found it...funny? "I have to get started on my cooking if I want to get it all done in time."

"Right, bye then." And he slowly put the phone down.

-Well aibou, it looks as if you're getting what you wanted.- Yami was _not_ going to broadcast his disappointment, but at least Yugi would be happy.

:Yeah, what was that about getting me to ask the psychos to our next study session: Yugi took control again as he spoke to Yami.

-Who is the best student in your class?- A question that Yami already knew the answer to.

:Kaiba, or Ryou, depending on the subject.: And Yami was sure that in a few weeks Shadow would be one of the best. :I hadn't thought of that. But Bakura said they'd already done their homework.:

-It sounded like that was because they already had plans for today. If they get an invitation next time they might put it off until everyone gets together.-

:Maybe...: Yugi didn't say anything else, turning his attention to Jou, Anzu and Honda when they arrived.

--0--

It was no fun using magic of any sort to hunt Ryou mused as he slowly made his way closer to the herd. He'd resorted to magic to grab a yellowfin tuna from a bait ball, emerging from the Shadow Realm inside the school, and grabbing the nearest fish before returning to the Shadow Realm, taking it to his and Shadow's Light guarded sanctuary to gut and set preservation spells on. He didn't really like going after fish, he only did because Shadow asked him to. But for this hunt he'd take his time, without magic. He moved the same way the deer did, as much as possible, freezing when the herd did, and moving slowly and quietly otherwise. The deer wouldn't really notice him if he wasn't moving when they looked up, and they tended to freeze when they did. He'd lost one kill already by not realising they the wind would shift, so he'd been upwind of the herd, and they'd caught his scent, fleeing before he was close enough to catch one. This time he was staying downwind, and he didn't think it was going to shift anytime soon.

Now! He was close enough to the edge of the herd. He ran out and jumped onto a low-ranked buck on the outskirts where there was little to forage, breaking the neck swiftly as the herd scattered. He swung the body over his shoulders and returned to their sanctuary, to clean his latest kill, mind reaching out to check on his Consort as he did almost automatically. Shadow was still busy preparing the bread dough and noodles, Ryou usually left him alone in the house when he needed to do that, because if he didn't he knew that he was all too likely to distract his Consort and demand his attention, and Shadow _would_ comply - resulting in disaster as far as their food went.

:How would you like me to split up the meat, and what do you want me to bring back with me my pet:

-Half in steaks of half a kilogram, half in smaller chunks, bagged to half kilogram mass. Bring back six kilos each of fish and red meat, half as steaks, half as chunks. The organs...what did you get Seraph-sama?- He sounded almost dismissive, meaning he had to be _very_ distracted. Shadow normally paid total attention to Ryou, and to his needs and desires, so much that at times it was almost smothering.

:I caught a yellowfin tuna for your fish and a deer for the red meat.:

-Then keep the organs, but bring back the deer's heart please Seraph-sama.-

:If that's what you want. I'll leave you to your baking.: And he began the slow process of butchering his kills. It took up about three hours to get the animals broken down the way Shadow had asked, but that didn't matter, any more than it mattered that he was covered in blood at the end.

A quick check confirmed that Shadow had finished with his cooking, and turned to working on his firewall code, but there was a vague regret that didn't quite make sense.

:Do you need any of the meat left out: Ryou returned from the Shadow Realm in the kitchen, noting the comforting smells of stew and bread baking.

-Yes, leave one bag of chopped up tuna and the deer's heart out please Seraph-sama.- Ryou knew that his Consort was about to put everything aside to join him, but...

:Just keep on with your work Shadow. I need a shower and bath first, I'm covered with blood.:

-Then I'll go and heat the furo up for you. So that it's warm when you get in. Just leave your clothes in the kitchen, no point in trailing blood through the house. It would cause far too many questions.-

:Fine.: Ryou had to laugh sometimes at the way his yami would take over when he thought Ryou needed it, despite his firm belief in his own inferiority. Then, it was always to take care of Ryou in the little, homely things, and it seemed to reassure Shadow that he was cared about when Ryou allowed it. He shrugged mentally and turned to putting the meat away. The blood had dried enough by the time he'd finished that he _wouldn't_ have been trailing it through the house anyway, but he indulged Shadow's worries and undressed, with Shadow entering the kitchen to pick the clothes up just as he left it.

The shower wasn't quite enough to cleanse the blood from his hair, so he resorted to his magic to burn it away, carefully before getting into the furo to relax and think about his Consort. He didn't expect Shadow to have had any trouble, but...

:Shadow, how was your day:

--0--

Bakura glanced quickly at the stew he'd been preparing, it was fine, another hour or more cooking wouldn't hurt it, but he had to take the bread out in half an hour. Seraph was unlikely to be out of the bath that soon, but it would taste just as good cold, or just warm as fresh from the oven. He looked over at the clothes Seraph had left on the floor. Black denim, all of it, easy enough to clean, better than leather for certain, and it showed blood far less than other colours did. It was a fallacy that red would hide blood, it hid it well enough when it was wet, but once it dried the blood started to show he mused as he put the blood covered clothes in the laundry sink, filling it with cold water and leaving it to soak, adding the ice Seraph had removed from the freezer to fit the meat in, to chill the water even further. Seraph hunted barefoot ever since he'd ruined a pair of sneakers that Amane had chosen for him before she died in a hunt. He started from his tasks when he heard Seraph contact him.

:Shadow, how was your day:

-Mostly just the usual, but...the Pharaoh called just after I'd washed my hair. His hikari and their friends were all getting together to do their homework, and he wanted to invite us to come along.- Bakura was still in two minds on how he felt about that. It was nice in a way to have someone trying to get his attention, but he couldn't help but suspect that at least part of it was Yami's desire for a body of his own. And he was certain that a good part of Yami's desire for their company was the knowledge of how smart Seraph was.

:Did you want to go then: There was no hint of apology, in Seraph's mind, not that Bakura would ever expect it from him, just a distant curiosity.

-A bit, but running the household comes first, and anyone who cannot understand that is foolish. I told him a bit about the set-spell you leave on the house while you are hunting.-

:You cooked too much for just us. Do you want to invite the others over for dinner: Did he? There was no point in wasting the stew, and while the bread would keep he needed to cook the deer's heart tomorrow if it was to be any good...

-Please, yes, Seraph-sama.-

:Go ahead then. Tell them to arrive in an hour and a half, that should give me time to brush out your hair, and the bread time to cool.: A bit too much perhaps, but he could put the bread back in the 'cold' oven after half an hour or so.

-As you wish Seraph-sama.- He could leave the clothes as they were, so he did, and found the phone.

"Hello?" It was Yugi's grandfather and guardian who answered, which shouldn't have been too much of a surprise.

"Mutou-san, this is Bakura, might I speak to Yugi-dono?"

"What is it about?" He was rightfully suspicious of Bakura's motives.

"When he learned that Yami had contacted me while he was out, Seraph-sama suggested that I invite Yugi-dono and his friends over for dinner, in an hour and a half. Will that be permissible Mutou-san?" His voice showed the slight uncertainty he felt, knowing how Yugi thought of him.

"You can ask." And he left Bakura waiting while he got his grandson.

"What is it Bakura?" Slightly impatient, but not actively angry. He could work with that.

"Seraph-sama has returned from his hunt, and he wished me to invite you and your friends to eat with us, in an hour and a half. Do you wish that?"

"What did you cook?"

"Stew, and a number of different breads. We tend to eat Western style meals about half our evenings. There is more than enough to satisfy even Jounouchi's appetite, I promise." Bakura let his voice go lightly teasing on the last sentence. "I think that is one reason Seraph-sama wished me to offer this invitation, I prepared far too much." Not that he wouldn't be able to reheat and reuse it, freezing portions from what was left if they ate alone.

"I'll ask the others." Bakura could hear Yugi shouting at his friends to find out if they wanted to eat with Seraph and with him. He finger-combed his hair as he waited for their decision, echoing the essence of the conversation back to Seraph, and leaving him access to Bakura's senses.

"Yes, we'll be there in an hour okay?"

:Invite them to bring their completed homework with them, to compare.:

"Yes, Seraph-sama should be out of the bath by then. He thinks you should all bring your completed homework along, so we can compare answers?"

"Sure. See you then Bakura."

"Bye."

--0--

Ryou climbed out of the furo far sooner than he'd have liked, deactivating the set-spell that kept the water at exactly the right temperature. A quick weaving of Light Magic dried him and he pulled on a brown yukata.

:Come to our bedroom Shadow.: When his Consort arrived Ryou was waiting on the bed, and Shadow came to kneel in front of him.

"No, get up and lie on the bed." He'd found out that this was the easiest way to brush out Shadow's hair, and when he was ten he'd figured out that it was guaranteed to send him into a half-asleep state where he was perfectly relaxed. So, before he started... "Is there anything in the kitchen that needs your attention now?"

"No, I've just taken the bread out to cool. The stew can be served any time in the next three hours, it won't affect the taste."

"Good." And he began to brush his yami's hair, starting at the very ends, working the tangles out there, and slowly moving up. It was very relaxing, almost a meditative exercise, and the happy, contented sounds Shadow made were like the music some of the new agers used to aid in meditation. So he continued even after he'd gotten rid of the tangles, and it came as a surprise to both of them when the doorbell rang to announce Yugi and his friends.

"I'll get the door, you just come down when you're ready." Ryou patted Shadow gently on the back as he spoke, leaning over to sweep aside his hair and kiss the nape of his neck. Then he walked down to open the door. He leaned against the frame, smiling lazily as he greeted the children.

"Hello, come in. Sorry about taking so long to get to you, but we were a bit...occupied." The innuendo was so blatant that not one of them missed it. Then Shadow came down the stairs, perfectly composed in his black yukata, twisting his hair up in a knot.

"Tell me when you wish to eat. I can serve our meal at any time." He explained as we went to the living room, picking up our bags there. "Or, if you would rather I could serve now, and we can eat in here?"

"Up to you lot." Ryou really didn't care. Shadow wasn't clinging to him at the moment, because it was Yugi here, not Yami he assumed, but he was staying as far away from the young duellist as he could and be polite. "Just remember to be careful about not getting food on your homework if you want it now. And stew is quite messy."

"But...I could bring some of the breads in, to snack on if you want. Some of it's plain, but mostly it's the more fancy bread, herb bread with basil, garlic, rosemary, thyme, parmesan, and beer; orange and cranberry bread with walnut; some bread with eggs and poppy seed; another with honey and whole wheat; one with tomatoes and olives; another with pepper and red onion...truth they're almost a meal in and of themselves, but please leave room for the stew. And I'll leave the plain bread for eating with it, if that is what you wish."

"Well thought my pet, go and cut slices of all those breads, then. And bring in some butter too."

"Yes Seraph-sama."

"How did your hunting go anyway Ryou?" Yugi was the one who made the polite inquiry as they got their books out.

"I got a yellowfin tuna, about 150 kilos, and one of the low ranked bucks of a deer herd."

"By yourself? How'd you manage that?" Jou seemed to know how hard that was.

"I cheated with the tuna. I'm not amphibious like Naiad, so I came out of the Shadow Realm inside a bait ball, a school of lots of fish, and grabbed the nearest before returning to the Shadow Realm."

"Seraph-sama does not actually enjoy fishing, he only does it because fish are good for you, and I ask it of him." As he spoke Shadow carried in a large platter with slices of the breads he'd made and placed it within everyone's reach before kneeling at Ryou's feet and leaning against his legs where his idle hand could loosen and stroke his hair.

"So I do it as quickly as I can, and I'm not above cheating. That's what using magic for hunting of any sort is. The deer, now that I killed properly. I stalked it, using all the camouflage skills I learned short of out and out magic. Then when I was near enough I jumped on its back and broke the neck."

"Barehanded?" Honda sounded impressed, even if Anzu wasn't.

"Well, yes. It is possible. When I Work I rarely use a weapon, but I don't really have a signature style, not like some of us. I missed my first target because the wind changed, and I was too far away to catch one without a chase - and that makes the meat tougher than it has to be." That was the end of that line of conversation. They focused on comparing homework, and after eating, on duelling strategies.

--0--


	7. Chapter 7

Warning: Tendershipping with Ryou seme

This is AU, seriously so

Chaos-chick3 I'm trying to sort of hint that Yami's been affected by the way Bakura and Ryou act without explicitly saying so. And as for the bread thing...well I tend to associate 'expert cook' with 'able to make bread from scratch', and the different types were to emphasise that.

:blah: hikari to yami telepathy

-blah- yami to hikari telepathy

Bakura wasn't sure if he was relieved that fewer people were staring at him now that he wore the school uniform, or if he missed the attention. A Consort who drew the attention and appreciation of other Adepts was far more valuable an asset than one who didn't, so he'd learned how to be desired from the moment he realised that, to please Seraph, and improve his position. There was no one here who mattered, no reason to try to appeal to anyone but Seraph, so he should have been relieved that fewer people were staring at him, but...the people who _still_ stared at him were the ones who undressed him with their eyes, and who'd been gaping at them most when Seraph displayed his ownership.

-Are you sure I can't just get qualifications through some sort of home tutoring Seraph-sama?- It was how he'd gotten up to a level to be accepted into the school after all.

:No. If I have to do this, you have to. And my father would get suspicious if he didn't get reports from my teachers every so often. It'll be easier when we get to university, I promise.:

-As you say Seraph-sama.- He knew that university students didn't have to wear these stupid uniforms that were awkward to fight in, so there was that at least, but he wasn't entirely sure he wanted, or needed, to get these qualifications that meant so much to humans. Seraph already had a very well paid job, and so did he, jobs that were guaranteed until they died.

He was getting more stares now than he had yesterday, Bakura had a feeling it was something to do with the way Seraph had styled his hair, up in a high pony tail, since even Yugi's groupies had given him strange looks. But he wasn't sure why, he'd seen the style in a few historical anime. Or that could be it, the style was hopelessly old fashioned, but he'd seen it in modern times...on girls. He just hadn't realised, but it really didn't matter as long as Seraph was happy.

Like the previous week Seraph hid his collar, and the Millennium Ring using Shadow Magic before P.E., so they could wear them without any trouble, but this time when they walked into the gym they found Hitaka had set up boards and suspended bricks like the ones used in those martial arts displays.

"Bakura, I believe I was promised a demonstration?" For a moment Bakura thought the teacher was talking to him, and didn't understand what he meant, then he remembered that pupils were addressed by familial name, and the man meant Seraph. This was going to be good.

"Yes sir. Is there anyone else who can do this sort of thing?" It seemed almost a rhetorical question as seraph walked over first to the boards, nearly two inches thick, pressing his knuckles against them, and then punching through without even bothering to draw his hand back. Then he moved on to the bricks, smashing them with the edge of his hand, using just three inches to build momentum.

"If you can't do it without the wind-up and momentum to help you then you _can't_ do it. That's what I was taught."

His attitude rendered Hitaka speechless. Not that Bakura objected, but eventually he had to take charge of the class again.

"Pair off as you did last week." And the man started teaching them again, childishly simple techniques, meant to avoid doing too much damage, that assumed possession of strengths the people who _needed_ these lessons didn't have. Bakura was tall enough, and Honda didn't fight his attempts to throw him, so it didn't matter that he still didn't have his full strength, but even with Jou's cooperation Yugi was just too short to pull off the throws and other moves that Hitaka was trying to teach them.

"Yugi-dono, these lessons are useless, you'll have to forget them anyway when I start teaching you." He tried to console the duellist after another failure, one that hurt him instead of letting him throw Jou, but Hitaka heard him.

"You don't approve of the way I'm teaching Hiei?"

"No, the techniques you're teaching, they're fine for the stronger, bigger pupils, but..." Bakura paused, and then spoke up loudly enough for everyone to hear him. "How many of the defenders here can't throw their attacker, even when he's cooperating?" Nearly two thirds of the girls lifted their hands, and even two or three of the boys. "Your techniques assume near parity in size and physical condition, but that won't happen in real life. And you can't teach us what we need to know. Smaller, weaker means going for killing or disabling blows immediately, and carrying a weapon."

"Prove that you know what you're talking about child."

"Then...attack me twice. The first time...I'll use your techniques, as long as you don't _let_ me win with them. The second time...let me use what I know, what you won't be permitted to teach. If you have any faith in your teachings that is."

--0--

Yugi couldn't quite believe the way Bakura was challenging Hitaka-san. No one else would defy a teacher that way, but Yugi had been having problems doing what he'd been told to, and he wasn't the only one it seemed.

"I'll tell you if he's letting you throw him or anything Shadow. You do have a point." Ryou was smiling coldly as he stalked over to them, _after_ throwing his partner across the gym.

:Do you agree as well Yami:

-Yes. I hoped this would be useful, but...I know that you were doing exactly what you'd been told to do when you were hurt trying to throw Jou. You just don't have the leverage it takes aibou.-

:Bakura's taller than me too, do you think he can help me mou hitori no boku:

-I don't think he'd have agreed to try if he couldn't aibou.- There was that weird hesitance again before Yami continued. -But you can always ask him after this.-

"You aren't really trying." Ryou's voice distracted Yugi from his internal conversation and he looked over to see that Bakura _had_ thrown Hitaka-san.

"What do you mean Bakura?" Yugi guessed he had a right to sound angry at the implication.

"A real attacker, even the thug I assume you're trying to emulate, would have centred himself better, you deliberately left yourself wide open for that throw. Why not have someone else play attacker, someone who doesn't have anything invested. That or do it properly."

"And you'd know this how?" Hitaka-san had stood up by now, and was trying to use his height and muscled bulk to intimidate Ryou.

"I've been undergoing treatment for one of the less serious cancers for most of the past year, I came off the chemo about two months back, and I've finally managed to get back into condition. But...just under two years back I fudged my age to enter a tournament in Kyoto. I got thrown out for being 'too vicious' and that's when I told the organisers my age. I didn't _mean_ to break his spine, and he pulled illegal moves first." Ryou's voice sounded almost plaintive as he finished his explanation, and Hitaka-san turned pale.

"You...you're claiming to be _that_ fighter? How did you avoid the police?"

"You don't need to know that, and the records have been wiped anyway. I know I displayed the same little party trick I did for you at the tournament. Are you going to fight properly now?" Mockery laced Ryou's voice and Hitaka-san obediently attacked Bakura gain, this time easily forcing the yami to the ground and pinning him there.

"T-try it my way now?" Yugi couldn't quite believe he was hearing the Thief King Bakura stumbling over his words, almost in fear of a human.

"Yes." Hitaka-san seemed slightly flustered as he stood up, and Ryou _glared_ at him so hard he almost flinched. "Just take a moment to catch your breath." Ryou seemed to calm down at that, and moved to help Bakura up.

:Mou hitori no boku...:

-I'll sharpen your senses, yes Aibou.-

"Are you alright Shadow?" Ryou barely voiced the question as he gently stroked Bakura's back and pony tail.

"Hai, it's an involuntary reaction Seraph-sama, I just have to remember that." Then he almost grinned at Ryou. "Gives me some motivation though, doesn't it?"

"Hai, I guess it does." Ryou broke out laughing at that. "I think he's ready for the next match Hitaka-san."

:What are they talking about: Yugi knew he was missing something, but he couldn't see what was making the spirit of the Ring nervous.

-It sounds like your teacher was aroused when he was pinning Shadow down, perhaps he's been raped in the past.- Yami's mental voice held a studied indifference, that told Yugi louder than any words could that this was something that bothered him.

:In Egypt you mean: Yugi couldn't imagine anyone raping the spirit of the Ring now.

-Yes aibou, in Egypt.- There was an air of resignation to Yami's reply, but it didn't matter, did it?

Hitaka-san screamed, and Yugi looked up to see Bakura no longer defending himself, but doing his best to disable their teacher. Yugi didn't know why the specific points that Bakura hit were working so well, but they did work, and Yugi wanted to be able to do that.

"I think I've won this time Hitaka-san. I apologise for the damage, but the size difference is enough that in a real fight, unless I was in top condition - and under most circumstances for those who need these lessons most - my only chance would be to leave you in enough pain that I'd have time to run away."

He didn't reply, and Ryou came to kneel beside him, using a new sort of magic to heal him. "You won't be able to teach for the rest of this class, but you should be fine by the end of lunch. You _didn't_ think to limit Shadow, and he held back a lot, not strength-wise," Ryou's grimace was obvious, "but in technique, he could have killed you easily." Then Ryou stood up and took charge of the class himself, focusing on techniques that worked regardless of strength, according to Yami.

--0--

By lunch time Ryou was ready to _scream_. None of the larger boys had wanted to listen to him, and the jocks had heckled him until he'd taken all of them on at once, restricting himself to non-permanent damage with difficulty. He couldn't believe how stupid they'd been, he'd admitted to breaking someone's spine...and they were still giving him a hard time? And the children who really needed these lessons were no better, he'd tried teaching them just _four_ moves in total; two disengages, one nerve point in the lower arm, and one way to trip someone who had hold of you, he didn't think any of them would be able to repeat _one_ of those techniques even the next day, let alone when they needed it.

"I never realised just how easy you were to teach before, Shadow." Ryou kissed his Consort hungrily and pulled his hair out of its pony tail so he could run his hands through it more easily as they made their way to the yard.

"It helped, I believe, that the body you granted me was based on your own Seraph-sama. This body is vastly superior to my previous one in many things, rate of healing foremost among them."

"Yes, I never realised just how fast I heal, even without the aid of my ki, until I saw your surprise when your bruises went from purple to yellow inside a day, and disappeared the day after." His friends looked astonished at that, either at the rate of healing, or the fact that he'd never thought it was unusual.

"Yami asked what your meant by the aid of your ki." Yugi was _far_ too reliant on allowing Yami to think for him in Ryou's opinion. He _could_ think for himself, Ryou knew that, he'd seen it, but he seemed to prefer not to if it had anything to do with conflict.

"First, ki is the energy generated by the interaction of your soul and your body. Everybody generates some ki, but with training people can learn how to generate more then normal - how _much_ more depends on the person and how much effort they're willing to put into training, among other things. If you can control your ki you can concentrate it in injured areas, and accelerate your own rate of healing, in extreme cases to near instantaneous, but that's pretty rare. You can also sort of 'feed' your ki to someone else and that can increase how fast they heal too. But I don't advise anyone to do that unless it's a matter of life and death. Most Adepts can use ki to some extent, how much varies."

"And that's what you're going to be teaching me Bakura?" Yugi was looking at Shadow in a mix of wonder and doubt that annoyed Ryou.

"Yes, that's going to be the first thing I teach you, simply because the worse condition you're in, the easier it is for you to learn to sense your ki unless we go the roundabout method of getting you to learn how to sense your Shadow Magic properly, and then teaching you to be aware of your ki the same way. But you'll learn the more purely physical stuff too."

"But...will I be any good at that?" Yugi sounded anxious as he set his bag down beside him. "You said the techniques we were learning in P.E. were useless for me, and Yami told me I'm too short to get the leverage I needed."

Ryou laughed at that, and Shadow joined in as well. Yugi began to look offended, but that was cute on him and even funnier.

"Yugi, you're taller, and broader than Fae, he's an alpha enhanced Adept of the Children of the Fairest and he has absolutely _no_ magic. He's also an unarmed combat specialist, and he could probably defeat any three other alpha enhanced Adepts in a fight that prohibited the use of magic." Ryou nodded to his Consort, letting him pick up where he'd left off.

"As long as he was permitted to use his ki. Fae's one of the Adepts who generates a _lot_ of ki, and uses it incredibly well. He has so much ki that he _looks_ about twenty, even though he's more like sixty, and he heals from broken bones in a few hours, at the outside. There's really two options to do well in a physical fight for someone your size. First, if you have the right body structure - which you don't - go for muscle mass, learn how to lift weights, really heavy weights. Secondly, learn to draw on some form of energy, your ki reserves as I plan to teach you, or Shadow Magic the way Yami does, to enhance the natural strength and speed of your body."

"Oh, right." Yugi didn't seem to have anything else to say after that.

--0--

It was three weeks since Shadow had first started coming to school with Seraph when he started wearing jewellery again. But he was wearing jet beads in his hair instead of rubies, and Yami was sure there was something subtly different about the bracelets and anklets, he just didn't know what. Yami was _sure_ that meant that the drugs Shadow'd been given had worn off, Seraph had said something of the sort anyway.

-Aibou, you should ask Seraph when you can have your first fighting lesson from Shadow, and where.- Seraph because both the other yami and the assassin had made it very clear that Seraph was the one they needed to talk to, even for this.

:Now? And...I thought you wanted me to get on with Bakura.: Yugi sounded surprised, _he_ didn't seem to have taken Seraph's assumptions and behaviour as indicative of what he should do, and it sounded almost as if he'd finally come around to being willing to make an effort to get along with Shadow.

-I do, but...Shadow would just tell you to go and ask Seraph, I'm sure of that from the way he always reacts when there's any important decisions to make. Or even any decisions that affect both him and Seraph.- It was one of the things that worried Yami about their relationship, and something that scared him a bit at times about his relationship with his own hikari. The only times Yami made decisions for both himself and Yugi were when Yugi was endangered, but Yugi fairly often forgot about the effects his decisions could have on Yami. It didn't matter, Yami firmly dismissed his thoughts, Yugi was the important one anyway, he always had been.

:I'll ask them when they're together, how does that sound: There was the air of someone offering a compromise to make the other happy, even if he was wrong, in the way Yugi answered. Yami knew that he was right, Shadow would say they should ask Seraph, but...

-Thank you aibou.- He wouldn't start another argument with his hikari over how unhealthy he felt Shadow's relationship with Seraph was. He knew that Yugi had to be getting tired of it, as tired as _he'd_ gotten of Yugi's old assumption that 'Bakura' had been abusing 'Ryou' when it seemed obvious to him that 'Ryou' _trusted_ 'Bakura' more even than Yugi trusted him. Well, that or 'Bakura' was much stronger than he was, or 'Ryou' much weaker than Yugi which was obviously not the case considering the deep well of power he'd always been able to sense in the white haired boy.

Come lunchtime Shadow had curled at Seraph's feet to eat, leaning casually against the assassin's legs. It looked a bit odd, but not too odd considering how fem Shadow tended to look and act around Seraph.

:Then again...I think I'll let _you_ talk to them.: And Yugi pushed Yami into control, leaving the spirit exasperated and almost angry. But it _did_ give him the chance to see something he hadn't realised before: Shadow'd stopped eating when Yugi began approaching them, ready to talk, just as Seraph had, but once Yami took over he moved to rest his head in Seraph's lap, nuzzling at the crotch.

"What is it Yami?" Seraph sounded half amused, and half...gloating?

"Aibou wanted me to ask about when he could take his first lesson with Shadow and where."

"He couldn't ask himself?" The amusement was growing stronger now.

"I _thought_ he was going to." Yami replied with a grimace. "But...he switched places with me before I realised what he was doing." Not that Yami thought he'd have been able to refuse his aibou even if he'd been given the chance to.

"Then if he can't be bothered to talk about this with us he can't complain if the arrangements inconvenience him." Seraph sounded annoyed now and Yami couldn't blame him. He pulled a card out of the trouser pocket of _Shadow's_ uniform, lifting his yami into his lap to do so and handed it to Yami around his Consort's body. "He should meet us there at nine on Sunday morning. And he shouldn't plan on leaving until six in the afternoon. He might not need all of that time, but just in case..."

"I...see. When will I have a chance to set up the Shadow Magic traps?" And he also contacted Yugi.

-Can I invite them to go to the arcade with you and your other friends today?-

"You can come an hour early I suppose." Seraph's response came simultaneously with Yugi's.

:Go ahead.:

"By the way, aibou and his friends are going to the arcade after school, would you two care to join them?"

"Please?" Shadow whispered the word, lifting one hand to Seraph's shoulder.

"We'll come with you then."

--0--

Bakura didn't look directly at any of Seraph's friends - better friends since they'd learned how lethal he was, or so it seemed to him - when they met in front of the school. It was inappropriate for a Consort, even an Adept Consort to fail to show proper respect, or to seem too curious. But he watched them from below his lowered lashes, and the corner of his eyes, noting which of them were the most comfortable with him, and which the least.

Anzu apparently wasn't going to the arcade with them - probably her part time job kept her from arriving with them, but he suspected she'd join them later on. Bakura wasn't entirely sure _why_ but it felt as if she was treating him like she would a female friend, not a male, ever since he'd explained what a Consort's duties consisted of. It didn't matter that she liked to talk to him most about cooking and other wifely things, he enjoyed cooking now, as much for the fact that he actually had enough food to worry about how it would be best to cook something, and that he had a choice of what to cook now as for any other reason. Having enough food was still something of a novelty to him, as was having so many clothes that you could put on a fresh outfit every day, and enough water to clean oneself daily and wash your clothes after only wearing them once. Jou and Honda seemed to have given him the same sort of status they would the lover of any friend, which wasn't that different from Anzu's attitude, and about what he'd hoped for, but hadn't dared expect. Yugi's attitude was just about what he'd expected though, barely hidden hostility, and remembrance of the things he'd done in trying to put his people to rest. The Pharaoh was the really odd one, he was trying to make overtures of friendship towards Bakura every time Yugi let him, and he was almost acting as if he was interested in Bakura.

It didn't matter, and they'd reached the arcade by the time he finished his musings. He looked around, uncertain as to what his role was meant to be, half hoping for instructions. Seraph _had_ taken him to places like this before, because they helped you improve hand-eye co-ordination and reflexes, but never as a group thing, and he didn't know if he was supposed to play one of the games himself, or just act as the appreciative audience for the others.

"There's this assassin game Ryou spent all visit playing the first time we came here." Honda took an almost protective hold on his shoulder, guiding him towards one game console that had a plastic 'gun' instead of a joystick. "Why don't you try it out?"

"I won't be as good as he was." As far as Bakura was concerned that was a given, that he could never be as good as Seraph, at anything. But he got through all of the levels without being killed, until they began to repeat from the beginning. When he saw that he just put the gun down and left the machine, looking for Seraph. In the end it was Seraph who found him of course, taking hold of him, and pulling him into a secluded corner, reinforcing their privacy with magic.

"Shadow, Saturday afternoon I've managed to get a tribunal hearing about what Solar did to you." They wouldn't really have had a case if it had just been the aphrodisiacs, while technically Seraph was the only one entitled to use them on Bakura it would have been a sign of weakness for him to have to ask for a tribunal to help him enforce that, but using the _other_ drugs on a Consort made it an entirely different matter, and once Seraph had realised what Solar had done he'd made a point of documenting it _very_ thoroughly.

"Oh, thank you for the warning Seraph-sama." Bakura smiled up at his master, then opened his lips ever so slightly, inviting a kiss. It was a forgone conclusion that Solar would be ruled against of course, but since he _could_ request a combat trial to determine his punishment (including whether or not he'd be punished at all), and possibly even demand to face _Bakura_ instead of Seraph Bakura would need to prepare a deck to use against him. But he put all of that from his mind as Seraph took his lips, letting the privacy shielding drop and kissing hard enough to bruise if Bakura hadn't known how to yield and offer himself with every part of his body.

--0--


	8. Chapter 8

Warning: Tendershipping with Ryou seme

This is AU, seriously so

:blah: hikari to yami telepathy

-blah- yami to hikari telepathy

Ryou was careful to show his respect to the gathered tribunal, easy enough with Delphi and the three other alpha enhanced Adepts, but not so easy with Stellar, Solar's Sponsor. At gamma standard Stellar was only just high ranked enough to act as a Sponsor, but Ryou was convinced that his limitations were his own fault due to lack of imagination, and that he'd imposed them on his pupils and Sponsored without realising it. After the presentation they'd made of Shadow's blood work over the three weeks the drugs had been affecting him, and the memory they'd displayed of Solar being the one to drug Shadow even Stellar had to rule in their favour.

"What punishment do you request Seraph?" As the Adept of the Children of the Eldest on this tribunal Taltos was the spokesman. Ryou knew how lucky he was that there'd been an alpha enhanced Adept of each branch available for this so soon since they _had_ to be of equal or higher rank than him to make up the tribunal.

"That he be made bondservant to my Consort." Incapable of ever hurting Shadow again, or even of disobeying him, this would make Solar - and all his household - part of Ryou's own household.

"I challenge." Solar sounded remarkably calm about this, Ryou had the feeling he was missing something, and that his rival had some sort of plan.

"Then I request that in the unlikely event of his victory Solar be made incapable of harming my Consort by bringing him into our rivalry." Ryou _had_ to win that much, he didn't want his yami damaged because of Solar's stupidity. The tribunal argued over that for a few moments, behind a privacy shield, strangely, it seemed that only Fiend, of the Children of the Fallen, was objecting, and he was swiftly overruled.

"Granted."

"Why do you think my victory's so unlikely Seraph? Shadow's an _Adept_ Consort, so I'm facing _him_, not you." Ryou'd forgotten that. Shadow's success in passing testing to become a gamma standard Adept was so recent that it still slipped his mind sometimes.

-Seraph-sama, I half expected this. I have a deck ready to fight him with, and after all he's only seen me fight within the limits of testing.-

:So he has.: Ryou didn't try to hide the cruel amusement that thought brought him. "Because you don't have the faintest idea of what my Shadow's really capable of, only what the artificial constraints of testing allow. Go ahead, fight my Adept Consort, and lose." Solar hadn't seemed to expect _that_ response, and it shook his confidence for a moment, but then he smirked and stood, making his way to the arena.

"Come on then little Shadow." Mockery filled the golden beauty's voice as he stood waiting for Shadow to meet him in combat. He was wearing his usual golden brown leathers and silks, more matched to his eyes and hair - similar to Jou's, but more...vibrant - than of any practical value in concealment. Not that he'd dressed Shadow that much better Ryou had to admit, if only to himself. The dark grey leather pants and vest might be better camouflage than even black could be, but the black kitten-heeled boots he wore would probably hinder him in combat, and the red silk shirt beneath the vest would draw anyone's attention.

Shadow drew his deck from the holder fastened to his belt as he waited for Fiend to allow them to start; the Adept of the Children of the Fallen would preside over the match, as was standard in a combat trial. Ryou'd never studied the history of The Children of the Eldest, Fairest and Fallen, so he didn't know when or where they'd picked up the tradition of starting a ritual combat by having the overseer drop a piece of brightly coloured cloth, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was the instant way Shadow whipped out and invoked the top card of his deck, too swiftly for Solar to counter it.

"Swords of Revealing Light!" And that held Solar helpless long enough for Shadow to seal his soul into the second card in his deck. Shadow waited for Fiend to declare him the winner of the match, and then came over to Seraph, kneeling in front of him.

"I'll restore his soul after you've decided how to integrate him and his household into your own Seraph-sama." He'd thought about that since he'd decided on what to demand as reparation. The humiliation factor of having his 'rival' enslaved to a Consort, even an Adept Consort, had been the deciding factor more than anything else. Fiend was smiling at Ryou from the arena, obviously approving of the display of sadism.

"And when the arrangements have been made to do so. His concubines are mine now, you can pick one of them to take over the cleaning duties in our house back in Domino, the other can stay here. I want you to forbid him to touch anyone sexually, and he is to be restricted to my quarters here, except when he's performing an assassination with my leave. Half his fee is to go to your account, and half to mine. I think that covers everything." Now that he'd made his wishes known in the matter Ryou knew that they'd be carried out, that was why Stellar and Delphi were there.

--0--

Bakura waited in his room for Seraph to come to him. He hoped that his hikari wasn't angry with him for what he'd done today, preparing for a combat trial without informing him. He didn't think Seraph was angry, he'd seemed almost proud as he'd given the commands for bringing Solar's household into his own, but it was always a possibility, that he'd angered Seraph without meaning to. A nervous sounding knock at the door pulled him from his thoughts.

"Come in." He couldn't think who'd be knocking at his door, but he knew whoever it was had Seraph's permission to be there.

"Shadow-dono. We were told to present ourselves to you?" The more confident of the two women one of the servants pushed into the room spoke. She risked looking him in the face for a second, before openly gaping at the room, particularly the two desks, one for him, and one for Seraph. She looked like a Kushite, darker skinned than most Egyptians, with equally dark eyes and hair. The other one was a redhead, with hair like spilled blood, and voluptuous where the darker woman was leanly muscular, but that was all he could tell about her appearance, since she kept her face shadowed by her hair.

-Seraph-sama, do you wish the concubine we take with us to be able to cook as well?-

:It would give you a break, if you want it.: Bakura wasn't sure he did, but...

"What are your names?"

"I'm Rukaiya, and this is Antonia." Bakura mentally dismissed Antonia to focus instead on Rukaiya.

"Rukaiya, do you know how to clean and maintain a household?"

"Yes Shadow-dono."

"And what about cooking?"

"My range is limited to meals traditional to my culture, but I can learn more if you wish it."

"Maybe Seraph-sama will send you to a class on cooking, or just have you learn from the TV. You'll be coming with us when we leave. Antonia will be staying here. Go now." He dismissed them, picking up his deck and drawing a hand to distract himself as they left.

"You did well today Shadow." And Seraph's praise relaxed a tension he hadn't _quite_ been aware of before. He'd known when he entered of course, but he'd learned that usually Seraph preferred him to pretend not to notice him until the assassin deliberately drew his attention. "We've got a couple of hours until you need to release Solar to be bonded, come here." Seraph was already lying on the bed, whereas Bakura had sat at his desk, to have a flat surface to deal his cards out onto. Bakura walked over, and paused at the edge of the bed, until Seraph patted the pillows beside him and then he climbed up onto the bed and began the process of crawling over to his lover. Seraph reached up and stroked his hair gently before continuing. "Undress me." Seraph had dressed in a white gi and white hakama, even going so far as to wear zori, so Bakura started with his white tabi, kissing his skin as it was revealed. When he'd finished he just sat back on his heels and _looked_ at Seraph. He sometimes wished that he was ordered to bathe his hikari on a regular basis the way many other Consorts were, but his master preferred to bathe himself, alone.

"I want you to take me." Bakura's breath caught in his throat at this ultimate expression of trust. He could count the times he'd been seme on one hand, and still have fingers left over. He knew this meant he had to be quick, instead of lingering over pleasing his lover the way he preferred. But he could get something he hadn't been granted when they'd done this before.

"W-will you undress me, please, Seraph-sama?" A throaty laugh was his only answer as Seraph set to the task of removing his clothes. Once he was naked he knelt between Seraph's legs, raising the other's hips with a pile of pillows, and bypassed the assassin's half-hard penis to lick between his buttocks, cleaning him inside with the spell so often used on him before breaching the rosebud with his tongue. When he'd prepared him as much as he could that way he crawled away from Seraph to collect the oil from the bedside table and returned to take him into his mouth, bringing him to full arousal as he added the oil to his fingers and slid two into Seraph. His side of their link was totally open in offering and he finally completed stretching his hikari just before he was about to climax, pulling away swiftly enough to halt it. Seraph lifted a leg and somehow flipped over onto his hands and knees without touching Bakura.

"In me, now!" So it was to be from behind again. Bakura would have preferred to see Seraph, as he could when Seraph took _him_, but whatever pleased his master best. He used the oil on his cock and slid inside, his oiled hand going to Seraph's own straining cock, stroking him swiftly to climax. Bakura always finished after only a few thrusts into his master, the unfamiliar (despite Seraph's willingness to share what he felt during sex) sensations overwhelming him.

--0--

:I still can't believe you agreed that I'd meet Bakura here so early mou hitori no boku. You _know_ Sunday's the only chance we get to sleep in.:

-I'm sorry aibou. I truly am, but I didn't get the impression that Seraph was willing to permit me to disagree.- Yami knew that Yugi wasn't really angry about this, he was complaining for the sake of complaining, and Yami didn't need to apologise, just to be an audience for his hikari, but still... -We wouldn't need to get there so early if you were willing to forego the Shadow Magic protections...- He'd only offered them when he realised that Yugi wouldn't feel safe enough to learn without them, sensing the fear Jou's question about Shadow attacking him during the lesson raised.

:We're up now: Yami'd made the suggestion before, but this was the first time Yugi's response had conveyed so much aggressive anger, enough to make Yami quail. :I said I wanted that Shadow Magic trap the _last_ ten times you wanted me to forget it as well! Enough already:

-I...I didn't mean to upset you aibou.- He tried to keep his discomfort from Yugi, but he failed, and that seemed to distract his hikari from complaining as nothing else had.

:It's alright mou hitori no boku. I'm not angry with you, it's just that I'd rather not have the whole day taken up by this. I mean I had a hard time finishing my homework yesterday and I didn't have time to do anything _fun_.:

-Seraph did say that it mightn't take all day for your first lesson. I think that he implied it wouldn't take all day for later lessons either. Didn't he say learning to sense your ki would be the first lesson?-

:Yes. We're here.: Yugi opened the door with the key that Seraph had given him just before the left school yesterday. :Can you set up the traps now:

-Yes aibou.- Yugi handed over control of their body and Yami busied himself first with setting up the traps he'd promised his hikari, and then, once Yugi granted permission, with stretches to warm up, so they wouldn't hurt themselves during the lesson by trying to do too much.

He handed control back to Yugi when Seraph and Shadow arrived, each carrying a backpack. Yami'd handed control back to Yugi before he saw Shadow's face, but he'd have gasped the same way when he saw the red gems that were now inset into his scar.

"What happened to your face Bakura?" Shadow didn't reply, instead taking some things from the bags and setting them up while Seraph replied.

"We needed to be at the Compound anyway, so I decided to have the garnets added to his scar. Looks good don't you think?"

"You decided? He doesn't get a choice in the matter?" Yugi seemed to be as outraged as Yami was by the idea.

"What makes you think I'd _want_ a choice." Shadow straightened, looking at Yugi. "If Seraph-sama like this that is all I need to be concerned about. It isn't as if it really hurt or anything, and I don't really mind drawing the attention - I get it anyway. Anyway, it's time to start training you Yugi. You don't know how to meditate, or I'd consider teaching you to sense your ki that way, but it would take far too much time to first teach you to meditate, then teach you to use that to find your ki. Instead we'll use a faster method."

"What do I need to do?" Yugi's voice trembled a bit at first, but he quickly firmed it up, to Yami's approval.

"Have you warmed up already, or do you need to do it now?"

"Yami did it for me."

"Good enough." And them Shadow began putting Yugi through a workout that seemed to be _designed_ to exhaust him. He was given weighted wrist and ankle bands to do the workout in, and they started off with an hour of sit-ups, push-ups and that sort of thing, all fast paced. Then Shadow tossed Yugi an energy drink and gave him a minute to drink it, timing it.

"Next we're running. Keep up with me. If you fall too far behind I'll have to summon something to give you a bit of motivation Yugi-dono." He sounded so casual about it, but Yami noted that he was careful about the pace he set, it was within Yugi's reach, if just barely, at least for the first hour. Again Yugi got a minute to have an energy drink, but then Shadow got him to start running again, faster this time since Seraph had replaced Shadow as his running partner, still with the weights at his wrists and ankles. Eventually Yugi just collapsed, and Yami could tell that he was exhausted.

"Get up, just do a bit more, or you'll have wasted all this effort." Shadow coaxed Yugi back onto his feet, and then into running a few steps further. After he'd collapsed again he coached Yugi through _something_. Yami didn't understand _what_ it was, but he could feel Yugi's sense of epiphany.

"That's all for today. Remember what this feels like, and try to recapture the feeling as often as you can. We'll see you tomorrow...unless you want help getting to the Game Shop?"

"No, I can manage."

--0--

-Aibou, you need to get up. You slept through your alarm and Jiisan's calling for you.-

:I'm still tired mou hitori no boku. _You_ get up instead.:

-Aibou...-

:I'll take over when we get to school, but I'm still tired because _you_ insisted I find my ki every hour until damn near midnight. It won't be as bad for you.: Yami obeyed, taking over his body to get out of bed at Jiisan's next call.

-I'm sorry aibou, it's just...I was so scared that you'd forget how to do that, and have to go through what happened on Sunday again.- Guilt, shame and fear came through their link with the words, along with a sense of self-abasement and submission. Now _Yugi_ felt guilty for complaining about Yami's efforts to protect him, and make him strong enough not to _need_ protection in the same way; he knew that he couldn't have endured something like Sunday again. Especially considering the way he'd reacted to learning how the Puzzle could protect Yugi from him if it ever became necessary; even before that he'd wanted Yugi to accept him and his sense of self-worth had been almost totally wrapped up in his ability to protect Yugi, but now it was even worse.

:It's alright. I'm not really angry, and you're right I don't think I could cope with Sunday again. It's just you've got to admit that you're a bit paranoid.:

-Yes aibou. Go ahead, get some more rest in your soul room.- Yugi didn't bother to reply, just curled up on his bed in his soul room, and took the opportunity to get some sleep. It wasn't as good as really sleeping would have been, but he would be a bit more alert when he got to school.

"Aibou asked me to get him to school, while he got as much rest as he could in his soul room." Yami's worried, and guilty, voice woke Yugi from his nap just as they were reaching the school gates.

:Can you stay in charge until we actually start class, please mou hitori no boku:

-If that's what you want aibou.-

"Shit. What got him that wasted?"

"Do you remember when Shadow agreed to teach aibou how to defend himself? It was his first lesson yesterday, and I can see why Seraph insisted on the promise not to complain and to obey without question. Seraph help work Yugi to the point of collapse. They said it was the quickest way to teach him to sense his ki. It didn't help that I nagged him into finding his ki on an hourly basis for the rest of the day." There was a sense of rueful acknowledgement in the last sentence, but not the same sort of guilt Yugi'd heard earlier.

:After that I'm glad you asked Bakura to teach me to fight, not Ryou. Ryou doesn't seem to understand the concept of limitations too well.:

"Why?" At least Honda didn't sound accusing, that would have damaged Yami even more.

"I...Shadow told aibou to try to find his ki as often as he could...and I was scared that if he couldn't he'd have to do what it took to sense his ki the first time again. Aibou tells me I'm paranoid. But I want him to be capable of taking care of himself, not just depending on me for protection. I've already failed him sometimes."

:No. You haven't. Believe me, you've never failed me in any way.: Yugi could tell that Yami _wanted_ to believe him, but he wasn't convinced. :You should warn them about Bakura's scar too.:

-Yes aibou. Thank you for reminding me.-

"Aibou thought you should hear this before you actually see Shadow. You know his scar? There's garnets set into it now, Seraph said he had it done while they were at the Compound - wherever that is - on Saturday."

"_Ryou-kun_ had it done, not Bakura-kun?" Of course Anzu would be concerned.

"Yes, but...Shadow said he didn't mind." And Yugi could sense Yami's confusion, feeding on and feeding his own. "I should get everything ready for the first lesson." His attempt to disengage probably wouldn't have worked - obviously the King of Games didn't see this as a game - if it hadn't been for Ryou and Bakura walking in together at that moment and everybody gasping at Bakura's scar.

-What will you need aibou?- Yami's question distracted Yugi, as it was clearly intended to.

--0--

Bakura scowled slightly as he realised that he wouldn't have a chance to check on Yugi's progress until after the first lesson, or possibly lunch if the teen needed guiding through finding his ki again. He'd known there'd be some talk about what Seraph had ordered done to his scar, but he hadn't expected Yami's groupies to virtually mob him. No one else had dared come so close to him since the third time Seraph put people in hospital for touching him and since the story about that tournament two years back had circulated. He'd been there to watch and it had scared the hell out of him, the way Seraph could cripple someone without even meaning to. Ironically it wouldn't have bothered him a bit if Seraph had decided to cripple his opponent, instead of just forgetting how fragile people were. Even so Bakura didn't really want to know what sort of favours Seraph had to call in to keep what happened out of the courts. It was a relief when the lesson actually started, and he didn't have to keep on answering the same question phrased different ways again and again.

He went over to Yugi after the first lesson, seeing the signs of exhaustion clear throughout his body.

"Are you alright Yugi-dono?"

"Yeah...just tired." The teen dredged up a smile from somewhere, even though he could barely keep his head up. "Mou hitori no boku kept me up until midnight, practising what you taught me."

"Ah." Bakura returned a smile of his own. "Then I guess it would upset you if I asked you to show me that you can still find your ki?" He wasn't sure whether he should insist, or leave the teen for a bit.

"Fine. At least this way all the practice I got isn't wasted." Bakura watched, observing as Yugi focused and found his ki, frowning when he realised how low it was - far lower than it should have been for even an untrained teen like Yugi, and far lower than it normally was. It had only been a little lower when he first sensed it, but that was because Bakura and Seraph had deliberately depleted it with the exercises, so that Yugi was forced to rely on it.

"No, your practice wasn't wasted, keep focusing on how your ki feels, and tell me when it changes, and how." Bakura lifted his hand and touched Yugi's arm, feeding his own ki into Yugi, enough to just barely double it.

"My ki...it just doubled. Did you do that?" Yugi'd lost his awareness of his ki in his surprise, looking at Bakura wide-eyed.

"Yes Yugi-dono. You should be fine now."

"Thank you Bakura-san." Bakura blinked in surprise. He knew the changed form of address, the new use of an honorific meant _something_, but he had no idea what. Honda and Jounouchi didn't bother with any suffixes, for _anyone_, and he'd stopped Anzu calling him -chan like she would a girlfriend the one time she tried so she'd reverted back to -kun, Yami of course rarely bothered with the suffixes anymore than he did, because they weren't natural to either of them, but Yugi normally called people -kun, unless they were enemies, or deserved specific respect.

"You are welcome Yugi-dono. It is still lower than your ki should be, but..." Bakura looked away and fiddled with one of his bracelets as he tried to work out how to explain. It seemed to be a good distraction technique.

"Mou hitori no boku wants me to ask about those. He thinks they aren't the same ones you were wearing the first day you came to school?"

"He's very observant then. The only way I can tell is because these weigh less than the other set. The bracelets and anklets I was wearing that first day are made out of platinum, and set with rubies you see. Seraph-sama decided that 'cheap silver' set with garnets would be better, less of a temptation to thieves. I could probably deal with a bullet using Shadow Magic if I saw it coming, but he'd rather not take the chance."

"Oh." Yugi smiled in understanding. "I remember once there was a museum owner who wanted to steal my Millennium Puzzle and sell it to someone else. He died, by Shadi's hand, not Yami's."

"You understand then." Bakura couldn't say anything else, since the teacher had arrived for their next lesson.

--0--


	9. Chapter 9

Warning: Tendershipping with Ryou seme

This is AU, seriously so

:blah: hikari to yami telepathy

-blah- yami to hikari telepathy

"You understand then." Yugi guessed that he did. Ryou seemed to have become even more vicious in protecting Bakura than Yami'd ever been in protecting him, no wonder Bakura didn't want his lover to have an excuse to hurt someone for stealing from him. It was unnerving to say the least, the idea of having anything in common with the Tomb Robber, but...

He focused on his lessons to distract himself from that idea, succeeding so well that he was surprised when it was time for lunch. The gang gathered round Ryou and Bakura, making sure that no one had the chance to harass them - or the chance to harass Bakura more likely...Ryou'd picked up a reputation for being incredibly violent when Bakura was upset by someone - or even when someone got too close to him. And the story about the fighter he claimed he'd killed or crippled two years ago was all over the school so even the bullies were starting to give both of the white-haired boys a wide birth.

"For the final time, I don't mind that Seraph-sama decided to have my scar reopened and stitched up with garnets. He used his magic to heal me afterwards, and since it is a scar that got cut up - hence dead nerves - it didn't exactly hurt." Bakura shrugged as he spoke, frustrated enough to actually look directly at everyone, instead of keeping his eyes cast down the way he usually did. Yugi could feel Yami's pleasure at that, mixed with his displeasure at _what_ Bakura was saying.

"I meant to ask you yesterday, why were you two at 'the Compound' anyway Bakura-san, Ryou-kun?"

"I got a tribunal hearing about the drugs Solar forced on Shadow, scheduled for Saturday afternoon. A tribunal hearing's probably our equivalent of a civil court case. A representative of each branch, ranking equal to or higher than the accuser and the accused and the Sponsors of both sit on the tribunal...it's almost unheard of for two Adepts with the same Sponsor to feel the need for a tribunal hearing. Since Shadow's my Consort I'm allowed to demand a tribunal hearing on his behalf, even if he's an Adept in his own right as well. We had evidence enough to win, but I forgot that Solar could demand a combat trial against _Shadow_ instead of me, to determine his punishment."

"Combat trial? What's that?" Jounouchi voiced my own question. Bakura touched Ryou's arm for a moment, then answered when he nodded permission.

"It's basically a ritual combat. The representative for the Children of the Fallen oversees it, and victory must be obvious. Seraph-sama did insist that even had I lost and survived a spell would be cast on Solar to render him incapable of bringing me into their rivalry. But..." He ducked his head, smiling slightly as he spoke. "he'd forgotten about my Shadow Magic, and how it doesn't work right for testing. I used 'Swords of Revealing Light' to pin Solar in place, then sealed his soul into a card until everything was arranged for his household to be brought into Seraph-sama's. We got a live-in maid out of it too, she was one of Solar's two concubines, the more confident of the two, and she knows how to clean leather, so we won't have to send that out anymore either."

"We won't be able to once we start to Work again anyway." Ryou pulled Bakura against him, stroking his hair gently. "I know Solar's household is small, only two concubines and no servants, but he's only five years older than I am, and neither of us felt the need for personal servants. My household was even smaller, just my Consort, but I established my household first by claiming Shadow. Solar took his concubines in direct response to that. Now I've switched their designation to servants, which gives them less status but more security."

-Aibou, is he saying that concubines could be discarded without consideration?-

:I don't know, I'll ask.: Yugi didn't like that idea either. "More security, how?"

"While we're expected to provide a 'dowry' for any concubine we tire of, enough for them to either make a good marriage if they choose to or set up their own business or buy an annuity sometimes, it doesn't always work out for them. Often dismissed concubines don't know how to do things like budget properly and get into financial trouble. The usual 'dowry' is the average of the fee for the last five times the Adept in question Worked. So if I had to dowry a concubine now I'd be giving him somewhere in the region of half a million dollars. Servants can't be dismissed from your household and must be provided for until they die or ask to leave. In those circumstances they're given what a years wages in the same job would be elsewhere."

"Oh." That sounded reasonable, even generous. "You never explained exactly what happened to this Solar."

--0--

"You never explained exactly what happened to this Solar." Bakura looked at Yugi from beneath his lashes at that question. Everyone else had been distracted by his description of the combat trial, and the mention of concubines. He couldn't help but wonder what Yugi suspected had happened to him.

-Seraph-sama, we could use this to gauge how he feels about us?- It really wasn't Bakura's place to make such a suggestion, but...

:Well thought.: Seraph seemed to approve, a relief. "Why don't you tell me what you think happened to Solar Yugi? Remember, what he did to Shadow left him damn near helpless. And don't forget that he was almost raped the first day he came to school." Bakura thought that was an overstatement, but he was hardly going to disagree with his owner. Yugi got that vague look in his eyes that meant he was talking to Yami.

"Mou hitori no boku thinks that you might have had him killed, because of what you said about having his household brought into yours, but if that happened wouldn't Bakura have just left his soul sealed in that card?" _That_ was impressive, the teenager _catching_ the subtle cue in his word choice, a cue he hadn't even noticed, and one his other half had ignored to focus on the other, more blatant, cue. "And I can't imagine you having him killed, since he wasn't attacking you."

"You're not exactly right there. He's been trying to kill me for nine years, I've just been good enough to avoid it. But I didn't have the right to demand that he fight me over this, and that's the only way I'd be allowed to kill him, or have him killed." Bakura didn't think the teenagers wanted to hear Seraph's blunt assessment of the situation, but Jounouchi seemed to understand at least. "What I demanded was crueller in many ways. He's...there's been a spell put on him that turned him into Shadow's slave. He still has his mind and sense of self, but he can't ever disobey any order Shadow gives him and he can't ever hurt Shadow, or even defend himself against him."

"You've left him helpless?"

"That's sick!"

"You sure he deserves that?"

"You're leaving him totally in Bakura's power?" Of course it would be Yugi who'd mention his distrust of Bakura, while Jounouchi sounded as if he'd accept Seraph's decision if he answered yes.

"Shadow is hardly going to waste his time abusing Solar." Bakura put a hand on Seraph's arm, wordlessly asking to be permitted to explain himself. "He can explain for you."

"Solar had found that I was a vulnerable point for Seraph-sama, he wasn't going to give that up, not if he could avoid it, so a permanent solution was required, but the only way he could be killed over it was in the combat trial - and Seraph-sama did not instruct me to do so. Yes, even if I'd lost he would have been bound from using me that way, but without a demonstration of the severe consequences of using me that way, including the fact that Seraph-sama only took Solar's rivalry with him seriously when he tried to harm me, it would have left the possibility of others using me the same way. We left Solar at the Compound. Basically he's living the life a lot of concubines have to live, certainly that _his_ concubines had to live, except that neither of us finds him desirable enough to bed - and I wouldn't be permitted to bed him even if I wished it - and he's allowed to Work if both Seraph-sama and I grant permission." Bakura shrugged, carefully. "It's a useful extra source of income. On another topic Yugi-dono, you should wear the weighted wrist and ankle bands I gave you at least four days out of the week, preferably all day from when you wake until you go to sleep. After a while you won't even notice them."

"Do I have to Bakura-san?" He sounded unhappy with the idea, but Bakura knew it would help improve his strength, and later his ki-abilities.

"It would be better - but if you'd rather not then I cannot force you Yugi-dono. It is an easy way to build your strength though - comparatively easy anyway."

"Compared to what?" Jounouchi sounded almost insulted for some reason.

--0--

-That's a good question aibou.- Yami didn't remember how he'd learned to fight, but he couldn't see how Bakura considered carrying those weights around all day 'easy'. They weren't that heavy, but heavy enough to tire Yugi if he wore them all day.

"They're a lot lighter than you'd use for a focused weight-lifting session Yugi-dono, and it means that you don't have to take time away from your usual routine to actively work on improving your strength. When Seraph-sama was first training me to fight beside him I was required to wear a weighted vest that massed as much as I did, and that was in addition to doing all the training he thought was needed." As soon as he'd spoken Shadow cast his eyes down and fell silent as if he thought he'd said too much. It was still unnerving even after nearly a month to get used to dealing with Shadow, even at second hand, rather than Yami no Bakura. Nice, Ra knew that Shadow was a lot more pleasant to be around than Yami no Bakura had ever been, but still unnerving, especially how he acted as if he were inferior to everyone but Yami.

"I'll be exhausted by the end of the day then." Yugi seemed unhappy about that, and Yami rushed to assure him of his love and support, with emotions rather than words. "How did you manage to deal with carrying so much weight about with you and train as well?"

"It wasn't that hard. Remember I was used to using Shadow Magic to enhance my strength anyway, and even then I was as strong as I'd been back when I lived before. It isn't that hard for a strong adult man to carry an eight year old boy, for a while anyway, and even then it would be more the awkwardness than the weight that would cause problems. It made me stronger and improved my ability to use ki, since Seraph-sama blocked me from using Shadow Magic once he'd shown me how to access my ki. Even though I didn't and still don't have the same ki-reserves he has, and couldn't draw on ki as well as I could on Shadow Magic it was enough to help. If you don't figure out how to use your ki to enhance your strength by yourself within a month I'll teach you that. But we should start with nerve pinches and that sort of thing."

"On that subject...here." Seraph raked around in his bag for a few moments before handing a booklet over to Yugi. "This shows some of the more effective and accessible places to use a nerve pinch as well as how to locate them. I suggest you study it as much as you can, and practise if you can find anyone who's willing to let you try this out on them." This was something Yami could help with.

-Aibou, you are free to test these new skill on _me_ inside my soul room or yours.- It didn't matter if it would hurt, and Shadow wouldn't be pushing this as the first thing for Yugi to learn if it couldn't cause a lot of pain from what he'd said to Hitaka-san, as long as it help make Yugi stronger and more independent.

:Will that work mou hitori no boku? And...I don't want to hurt you.: But Yugi's concern for him had come _second_, not first, Yami was sure that once Yugi would said he didn't want to hurt him _before_ he worried about how well it would work - if he worried about how well it would work at all. It didn't matter, and Yami pushed the idea from his mind before he answered.

-Aibou, I don't mind being hurt if it would help you. And besides, from what Shadow and Seraph said when they admitted what they were I'll heal almost instantly in my soul room. But in my soul room I feel real to myself, and if something works in my soul room, or yours it will work in the real world too.-

"I'll test you on them at the end of the month. I suppose we could bring in Solar to play victim for you during the test, but in our training sessions you'll be using the nerve pinches on me." Shadow interrupted their internal conversation, still with his eyes cast down submissively.

"Alright Bakura-san. I don't mind hurting you." That was...somewhat unnerving to hear from Yugi.

"You'll need to practise between lessons. And besides, it doesn't hurt for long, or really _that_ much to me. I've got a pretty high pain threshold now, it's something Seraph-sama had built into me when this body was made."

-So you see, it will be fine for you to practise on me between lessons.- Yami wasn't sure why he was so eager to let Yugi hurt him, but...if it would help his aibou, that was what mattered.

:Thank you mou hitori no boku.: Yami basked in the gratitude Yugi was sending him across their link. "I will Bakura-san."

--0--

Ryou jumped down into his back garden, Shadow following him, and quickly checked the snares, leaving them since they were all empty. They'd been empty every time he checked for over a week and he had the feeling they'd just about snared all the rabbits they were going to get from this area for a while, and if he still didn't catch anything with the snares by Saturday he'd take them in and store them.

:Shadow, come here.: He'd found a nice secluded spot where he didn't think anyone would be able to see them - and besides, it wasn't as if Shadow needed to start cooking, he'd told Rukaiya to have a meal ready for the three of them at five. When his Consort obeyed, with a delicious reluctance, he pulled the weaker teen into his arms, and began slowly removing the uniform he was wearing. Shadow froze for a second, then he began to struggle, just a little.

"Please, Seraph-sama, not here." It wasn't a serious protest, but Ryou decided to act as if it was. He paused, holding Shadow in place, one hand half inside his pants.

"Don't worry, my pet. No one can see us from outside our grounds, and you don't really think it would bother Rukaiya to see me making love to you." Shadow melted at those words, he was so _needy_ emotionally, clinging to any scrap of affection or praise Ryou gave him, but Ryou _did_ love Shadow, and he was proud to have such a beautiful and talented Consort. "And I'll use a glamor to keep prying eyes from us if it'll make you feel better." It was worth casting the minor spell to comfort Shadow. He kissed Shadow, demanding that the other open his mouth for him, distracting his Consort while Ryou stripped him, finally laying him down on the ground.

"Undress me, slowly." Shadow rose to his knees to obey, showing every evidence of pleasure now that his fears of being observed had been soothed. He started with the jacket, and then, once he began to reveal Ryou's skin when he started on the shirt he began kissing Ryou's skin as he exposed it. Ryou knew that his Consort preferred slow foreplay, and lots of build up, because it made him feel loved, and Ryou didn't mind indulging him once in a while. Once he was naked he pushed Shadow back down to the ground again, and took his mouth, exploring it with his tongue, refusing to allow him any control - not that Shadow tried to _take_ any control without explicit orders by now. The only thing Shadow tried to do to encourage him was to open his legs, to make access easier for him. But Ryou didn't have any lube with him, and he would _not_ hurt his Consort during sex. Besides, there were other things they could do, things that were just as enjoyable for them both.

He nudged Shadow's legs a bit closer together, earning a confused look from his Consort, silencing him with a finger to his lips as he made to speak. Then he turned his attention to his own position, aligning their hips to give just the right amount of friction, and _thrusting_. Shadow gasped in shock, they hadn't done this for a long time, and right now Ryou couldn't remember why not. Shadow had somehow managed to half sit up, bracing himself with his hands beside his hips, and Ryou allowed it, only using one hand to steady himself, and wrapping the other around both their dicks for more stimulation.

Then he finally remembered to share what he was feeling with Shadow, forcing their bond open so that they could each feel the other's pleasure, the way he did when taking his Consort, and they climaxed together.

He kissed Shadow gently, and pulled him to his feet, removing all evidence of what they'd been doing with a routine spell.

"Did you enjoy that Shadow?"

"Y-yes Seraph-sama." Ryou could understand Shadow's hesitance; he hardly ever bothered asking whether his Consort enjoyed what they did, it didn't actually matter how he felt about it, and they both knew that.

"More than what we normally do?"

"Normally do, Seraph-sama? I don't understand. This is something we hadn't done for a while, but you've never been unimaginative enough that I could say we normally do anything. I enjoy everything you do with me, you make sure of that." He smiled at Ryou, adoration in his eyes as always and he decided to ask just one more question before dismissing the matter.

--0--

"Was it better than when I take you?" Bakura cursed mentally, there was no right answer to that. Yes would insult and hurt Seraph, and so would no.

"I felt the same sense of connection with you that I always do. The physical doesn't matter besides that Seraph-sama." His hikari laughed at that, and reached out to run a hand through his hair affectionately.

"You are sweet at times Shadow." Bakura knew better than to protest Seraph's sometimes condescending attitude, besides he loved him and didn't think anything could change that. "Get dressed so I can drop that glamor."

It wasn't that being naked bothered Bakura - in his time it wasn't exactly uncommon for people not to wear clothes at all if they couldn't afford it - but the reminder that they'd just had sex _in the garden_ sent him scrambling for his clothes. He wasn't ashamed of his body, but having sex in public reminded him too much of the times he'd had no choice, when his rapists had taken him without concern for who was watching. All Seraph did was pick up his own clothes, he would probably fuck Bakura in front of all the Adepts without a qualm if he felt a need to. Rukaiya made it worse when she greeted them - it was all too obvious that the only thing she found strange about what had just happened was that Bakura had dressed again afterwards.

"My Shadow is very modest. It's worth putting up with that for what a good lay he is, and that he always had the potential to be trained as an Adept." Seraph thought it was funny, Bakura didn't, but he knew he couldn't object. "Let's take a shower together," Seraph was plucking a bit of leaf from Bakura's hair as he spoke. "I think we need to get clean, and Rukaiya won't have a meal ready for a while anyway."

Seraph insisted on washing Bakura from head to toe himself, but he didn't initiate sex again, or let Bakura wash him, and Bakura had to fight back his disappointment. Then, Seraph made a point of getting out of the shower first, drying himself off, and then holding out a fresh towel for Bakura to step into. It made Bakura feel as if Seraph cared for him as more than a convenient body, the way most Consorts and concubines were treated. It was these occasional touches of tenderness and consideration that had made Bakura fall in love with Seraph after he'd been broken and given his own body.

Bakura let his master dress him like a doll in a formal kimono, unsure as to _why_ Seraph wanted to do that, but willing to comply anyway, and then they did their homework together until Rukaiya told them that the meal was ready. But she'd only set two places at the table, and as she turned to leave after serving them Seraph caught hold of her by the wrist.

"Why aren't you eating with us? You did yesterday when my Shadow cooked." And this morning they'd been gone before she woke up. Seraph had given her instructions on what she was to do every week before they'd gone to bed yesterday, the only time available. They'd left her at the Compound to collect everything she wanted to keep with her, and had her delivered here mid-afternoon on Sunday. Bakura suddenly got an idea of what her answer might be.

"That was before I'd started my duties. I didn't realise I was supposed to eat with you."

"Well you are, so go and get your own plate and cutlery." Since the meal was all served in one pot set in the centre of the table that was all she needed, and Bakura had to wonder if she'd intended to only eat _after_ they'd finished or if she had something else planned.

"Yes Seraph-sama." When she returned Rukaiya kept her head bowed, carefully submissive, as if she was trying to apologise for her misunderstanding without words.

"You didn't do anything wrong Rukaiya. Seraph-sama is just a lot more generous than most Adepts would be." Seraph seemed to be amused by that, and shook his head, reaching out to lift Rukaiya's chin.

"Shadow is being overgenerous to me, but no, you aren't in trouble. Now, eat some of this delicious meal you prepared for us." And it was delicious, nothing like the sort of meals Bakura had focused on in learning how to cook, and a lot better prepared than what he'd cooked when he had the food available back in Egypt.

"Seraph-sama, perhaps we should invite your friends over for a meal tomorrow, I got the impression that some of them were unhappy about how your household has changed, and this is very different to anything I know how to cook."

"You can make the arrangements then, if you think it's a good idea." Bakura smiled at the casual permission Seraph gave him, enjoying the implied confidence in him.

--0--


	10. Chapter 10

Warning: Tendershipping with Ryou seme

This is AU, seriously so

:blah: hikari to yami telepathy

-blah- yami to hikari telepathy

Yami loved it when he was invited into his aibou's soul room, it was warm, alive and vibrant, where his own was dark, cold and _dead_, just like him. But he always felt just a little bit guilty about being there when Yugi was awake, even with his aibou's permission. He'd been tempted to play up how much he was hurting after Yugi had practised those nerve pinches on him, before Yugi had started practising, in the hope of being invited here, but he hadn't needed to. It had hurt a lot more than he'd expected, and there'd been a residual ache until this morning. He was still determined to play practise dummy for his aibou, but he felt almost betrayed that Shadow had understated the after-effects so much. Still, when Yugi had realised how much strain his practising had put on Yami he insisted that the spirit sleep with him in his soul room, even sharing the bed, although Yami would have been content with the floor, and ordered him to stay there while he went to school, wearing the weighted wrist and ankle bands as instructed.

Yami mentally shrugged, and cuddled deeper into the pile of blankets and stuffed animals his aibou had made for him, reminding himself tactilely that he was supposed to be here, that he wasn't stealing anything more from his aibou by being here and watching what was happening through his aibou's eyes. He watched as his aibou went through his morning routine, and set off on his way to school, all perfectly normal, despite the extra load he was bearing, but then things changed when he saw Shadow. Seraph wasn't with him, for a change, but he seemed to be looking for Yugi and his friends, since a smile lit his face as soon as he saw them.

"Yugi-dono. You were concerned about Rukaiya yesterday, and her former master, Solar. We can't do anything to set your mind at ease regarding Solar, but I had thought that if you came to eat with us after school today you could feel reassured that we do not abuse Rukaiya at least."

"Does she cook as well as you do Bakura-kun?" Shadow reacted almost modestly to Anzu's compliment, letting his gaze fall to the floor and lightly biting his lip, while I could feel my aibou's slight anger at the question delaying his chance to talk to Shadow alone.

"It isn't directly comparable, but her style of cooking tastes very good, it's just exotic by your standards, possibly more so than what I cooked the first time you visited."

"Sounds good. Count me in."

"Me too." Of course Yugi would never express the impatience he felt at Jounouchi and Honda's enthusiastic responses.

"It would be nice to have someone to do girl talk with." Anzu sounded almost wistful, and Yami remembered on their 'date' that Yugi had insisted they have she'd mentioned her lack of girlfriends when he'd been talking about his aibou.

"Sure. Bakura-san. I want to talk to you, alone."

"As you wish Yugi-dono." Shadow led Yugi over to a sheltered corner of the schoolyard and it occurred to Yami that perhaps _he_ wasn't supposed to hear this either.

-Aibou, do you want me to go back to my soul room and not watch this?-

:No, just stay where you are.: Then Yugi turned his attention to Shadow. "Why did you lie to me?"

"I...I don't understand. About what?" The pure shock on Shadow's face told Yami at least that he was telling the truth.

"Those nerve pinches you so helpfully diagrammed for me. Mou hitori no boku was in pain right up until this morning. Did you _want_ him crippled? Have you just been pretending to give up on your schemes Tomb Robber?" Yami was torn, he _loved_ it that his aibou wanted to defend him, but at the same time...he wasn't sure that Shadow _was_ to blame.

"I...Seraph has forbidden me to try to get vengeance for my village. I would never risk defying him. But...I don't understand, the nerve pinches never hurt me that much - although I expect my pain threshold was higher than the Pharaoh's even before Seraph gave me this body, and the pain's always faded inside half an hour at the outside."

-Aibou, I think he's telling the truth.-

:Maybe, but...: He pushed Shadow away from him, starting to turn away. "You should have explained that to start off with, in full detail."

--0--

Bakura bit his lip as he watched Yugi walk away from him. He hadn't expected that virulent attack on him, hadn't even realised that Yami would be hurt by Yugi's practising on him, and he had to wonder just _how long_ he'd practised for if Yami had been hurting for so long. The Pharaoh's hikari was changing, even if he didn't realise it, becoming stronger and more like Seraph, more like the one Bakura had modelled his behaviour on - at least in part - when he challenged Yami over the Puzzle.

He shook his head, dismissing the vague worries he was feeling; even if Yugi did start to mistreat Yami it was his right as the holder of the Millennium Puzzle, and Bakura didn't have the ability or the right to interfere. But...he could provide Yugi with an alternate practice dummy, perhaps...

"What happened Shadow?" He realised too late that he'd been walking almost in a daze as he thought about Yugi's reaction, and his response to Seraph's words betrayed that. He'd spun to meet the apparent threat, eyes wide in shock, telling Seraph that he'd only just noticed him, and that meant he was going to be punished. Bakura swiftly cast his eyes down, trying to avoid making Seraph any angrier.

"I invited Yugi-dono and the others to eat with us this evening and they accepted. But then Yugi-dono demanded to speak with me alone. He did some practice with those nerve pinches, on Yami, in his soul room, and he said Yami was in pain from them for most of the night."

"I'll be punishing you for your lack of awareness when we get back from school. Do you think your student might decide not to practice if he knows that he's hurting his precious Yami?"

"I...don't know." Before Seraph had announced the truth of what they were Bakura would have said 'yes' without hesitation, but now? And Ra! He was going to be punished while Yugi and his friends were there to hear it, perhaps even _see_ it, although he didn't think his failure quite merited that particular humiliation. "I'm pretty sure that Yami will want him to keep on practising though. And I had an idea about that..."

"Tell me." They'd reached the classroom by then, and Bakura had a feeling this conversation was unlikely to be overlooked much longer. Apparently Seraph thought the same. :Mind to mind.:

-Yes Seraph-sama.- They still had time before class actually started, and they both busied themselves setting up before the teacher arrived so no one would be too suspicious at their silence. -I thought perhaps, since you had decreed that Solar was not to Work for at least six months, to get him more accustomed to his new place in life, we could put him to use in another way.-

:Another way...you mean lend him to Yugi as a live-in teacher:

-Well, more as a practice dummy for now, perhaps later a sparring partner.- Bakura didn't like contradicting Seraph, but he had to. -Do you know if he's any good at actually teaching, Seraph-sama?-

:No, I don't. He's never taken any sort of pupil so how could I know:

-That's a bit surprising really, given his rivalry with you. Perhaps that means he tried to teach someone in secret and screwed up?-

:Possibly I didn't think of that. We could question him about it later perhaps. Anyway, you had a good idea about lending him to Yugi. It would be another pointed lesson in his place too. But you'd have to give him very specific orders, about obeying Yugi and his family, and I think I should make sure to pay them enough money to cover his needs and a bit more. I'm not certain about their financial situation except that we're one hell of a lot better off than them, and it would be wrong to make him a burden. You can propose the idea to Yugi when they come over tonight and I'll discuss it with the mother and grandfather.: They'd finished setting up their desks by now, so they didn't have that for cover, but Bakura glanced up at Seraph, smiling at him gratefully.

-Thank you, I will.- Then he blushed and began to read through the next chapter in his textbook, to get a better idea of what he'd have to deal with during class. Out of the corner of his eye he could see that Seraph was doing the same.

--0--

Yugi smiled at Ryou and Bakura as they joined him and his friends for the walk to their house. They almost never actually walked on the ground like normal people, preferring to roofhop and it was considerate of Ryou to decide they should accompany them. Anzu cornered Bakura as they walked, asking him about Rukaiya, her interests and that sort of thing. Honda and Jounouchi were asking about Rukaiya too, but about how good a cook she was, and what she looked like instead.

The woman who greeted them was frankly stunning, darkly exotic with lush curves and pure black hair and eyes. She was wearing dark red, a tunic with a neckline that exposed her cleavage and loose pants that fastened at her hips, exposing her narrow waist.

"Rukaiya, entertain our guests for a while. I need to deal with Shadow in private first."

"As you wish Seraph-sama. If you will accompany me sirs and madam?" Yugi blinked in surprise at that, and Jounouchi and Honda had a weird look on their faces, as if they were asking 'who, us?', but they all followed her into the main room.

"Anzu-san, Shadow-dono informed me that you are a dancer, would you care to have me dance for you all?" She turned to look at the boys then. "I can promise you that my dancing always pleased Solar." Her smile was promising things that Yugi was sure he was too young for, and Yami seemed to feel the same way.

"Yeah!"

"Sounds good."

"Please." The three boys spoke almost simultaneously.

"What sort of music do you need?" Anzu was paying attention to the technicalities.

"I don't actually need music if one of you can keep a rhythm clapping Anzu-san, but I can get a CD if you'd rather that."

"Please do." Yugi didn't want to listen to clapping in a specific rhythm if music was an option - and besides his hands always hurt if he clapped for too long, so he expected that other people's hands would too. She glanced at him measuringly for a moment, then nodded and moved to kneel by the music system, pulling out a CD, putting it in the machine, and setting it to a specific track.

"I'll be dancing to the next track, I just started with this one to give me time to get into position." She seemed to be half apologising, and she picked up a scarf from the table near the door, fastening it around he hips as she spoke. "Anzu-san, the dance I am trained in is intended to please men, but it started as something to do while we women waited for our men to return from their battles and such." She shrugged gracefully, and her explanation seemed to mean something to Anzu.

Then Yugi heard six cracking noises, and from the way they jumped so did everyone else - except Rukaiya, _she_ was acting as if those sounds were normal.

"What was that?"

"Seraph-sama must have felt the need to punish Shadow-dono for something." Rukaiya replied to Jou's question absently, focused more on the music than what she was saying. "The song's starting now."

-Aibou, when Seraph comes back please ask him why he 'punished' Shadow.- Yami's mind voice was urgent, and Yugi agreed without hesitation, the sounds he'd just heard suggested that _maybe_ Yami was right in his worries. Then Rukaiya's dancing distracted him.

:She's incredible, really sexy.:

-Yes aibou, she is. I expect she had to be from what Shadow and Seraph said.- He ignored the overtones of worry coming through their link, and focused on watching Rukaiya dance, so hard that he didn't notice when Ryou and Bakura came back into the room, both wearing yukata. He only realised they were there when he looked around after the dance finished to see Ryou sitting on an armchair with Bakura kneeling at his feet.

"She dances well, don't you think Anzu?"

"I-it's not a style I know, but...it's beautiful."

-Ask him now aibou, please.-

:All right.: Yugi gave in to Yami's request, he had a feeling the spirit would just nag him if he didn't. "Ryou, we heard some sounds before Rukaiya-san started to dance. She said you were punishing Bakura. Why?"

"I startled him at school today." Ryou didn't say anything else, it was as if he thought that was all the reason he needed to hurt him.

"That's it?" Yugi couldn't believe what he was hearing, and the others seemed just as shocked...except for Rukaiya.

--0--

They all seemed so shocked...didn't they understand how vital it was for any Adept to be alert at all times, even an Adept Consort? Any Adept should be past needing reminders like the one he'd just given Shadow, but Ryou admitted, if only to himself, that he hadn't been as good as he should have been in encouraging proper awareness...he'd let at least one occasion when Shadow had been cornered by _bullies_ pass without reprimand.

-Perhaps they'd take the explanation better from me Seraph-sama?-

:Go ahead then.: Ryou stroked Shadow's hair, waiting to see what he was going to say.

"An assassin cannot afford to lose awareness of what's happening around him, if he does it could well kill him. Because he startled me when he spoke to me just after we had spoken together Yugi-dono, while I was thinking about what to do to help your problem, Seraph-sama knew that I hadn't noticed him. That could have been fatal if I was Working, or back in Egypt raiding a tomb, so I should have known better. I had no reason to lose awareness of my surroundings and deserved my punishment."

"Oh!" Yugi and Anzu looked blank, and slightly uncomprehending, but Jounouchi and Honda were nodding in understanding. "Mou hitori no boku thinks that makes sense." There was a frown on Yugi's face as he passed the message on, and Ryou got the feeling there was something else he wasn't saying, but what difference did it make? Yami was his property, and he should feel lucky that Yugi was willing to trouble himself to pass on his words like that even incomplete.

"I don't need anyone's approval, as long as you all recognise that I have the right to do as I wish with Shadow, but it is nice." Ryou didn't _need_ their approval, but he did want to have friends, and their understanding why he needed to discipline Shadow sometimes would help him keep them. Time for a change of subject anyway. "Yugi, you were complaining to Shadow about how your practice with the nerve pinches affected Yami?"

"He was still hurting when I went to bed." Yugi glared at Shadow, and his Consort let his hair fall to cover his face as he bowed his head. "You said it wouldn't hurt him for more than half an hour at most."

"How long did you spend practising, and did you give him enough time to recover between the pinches?" The blank look on Yugi's face told Ryou that the _child_ hadn't even considered that. "Never mind. Shadow came up with an idea to keep you from deciding not to practise anymore. We'll lend Solar to you, with strict orders to obey you and your family, and not to hurt them in any way. That is as long as we can persuade your family to permit him to live with you. I will pay your family enough to cover his needs." And a bit more, which should help the case.

"That way you'll know I'm not abusing him Yugi-dono. And truthfully he is a better choice of victim for you to learn nerve pinches on that Yami is." Shadow's voice was quiet, and respectful, but firm too, and Ryou stroked his hair gently in approval.

"I...if you can get Kaasan and Jiisan to agree. Why's he a better choice?" At least Yugi had agreed.

"Because he knows how to do these nerve pinches, like all Adepts he heals faster than normal people and knows how to _use_ his ki to heal even faster, and he knows how long he needs to recover between pinches."

"Right." Yugi looked almost ashamed of using his yami however it would serve him best, then he got the look that told everyone he was communicating mentally with Yami, and he seemed to cheer up.

"Rukaiya, what exactly had you planned on cooking for us today? I know you went shopping for the ingredients even before we left for school." Shadow's quiet voice seemed to be enough to distract them.

"Lamb-stuffed quinces Shadow-dono, and walnut pastry with honey syrup as desert. I can adapt most of the meals I know hw to cook for the rabbit and venison you favour, but this is different."

"You haven't done anything with any of the fish or the birds have you?" Ryou enjoyed all the ways Shadow cooked different things for him and he wanted to know why Rukaiya had limited herself the way she had.

"Not yet. I don't know what to do with the fish but I just haven't had the chance to do anything with the birds."

"Well show us what you can do with birds tomorrow then." Ryou shrugged, and watched as she went to do something in the kitchen.

--0--

Yugi couldn't quite believe how quickly Ryou had managed to persuade his mother and grandfather to let Solar live with them, and he _didn't _want to know _how_. But he would need to know what sort of cover story Ryou'd decided to use to explain Solar's presence. He hadn't even seen this rival of Ryou's yet, so after school he waited to meet Ryou and Bakura, instead of leaving with his other friends.

"Solar's at my house, we'll get there quicker if we roofhop and I carry you. Do you mind?"

-Aibou, do you think that's a good idea?- Yami sounded worried, but...

:I trust Ryou mou hitori no boku.: Yugi smiled at Ryou and nodded. "Go ahead. But what about my bag?"

"Shadow can take that." Yugi hesitated, then handed the bag over to Bakura and let Ryou pick him up. It was terrifying when Ryou carried him as he leapt from roof to roof, and Yugi couldn't understand how Bakura could have enjoyed being carried the way he obviously had the first time Ryou had mentioned doing this. But Yami seemed to understand it from the hint of envy coming through their bond, and Yugi pushed him into control in his place. Ryou didn't say anything until they got to his house, and saw Solar waiting in the main room for them. Yugi couldn't see his face, since it was mostly covered by the almost golden hair tumbling to cover it, but he was kneeling, hands clasped behind his back and head bowed submissively.

"Solar, get up and look at Yugi-dono." Bakura's voice was quiet, Yugi's gasp when he saw how beautiful Solar was sounded louder. He was just under six feet tall with a swimmer's build and he had high cheekbones, full lips and eyes as golden as his hair. "You are to obey Yugi-dono and his family without question, and you may not attack or hurt him, his family or his friends unless it is in sparring - and then nothing more than bruises, or to avoid damage that would take more than a week to heal." Yugi wanted to protest, but Bakura seemed to sense that and turned to him. "I _know_ that I'm being over cautious, but Solar has made too many attempts to hurt Seraph-sama for me to risk leaving him with any loophole he could use against you would be too dangerous. Oh, and you are to defend him if he is attacked in any way you can defend against in your presence. Do you understand your orders Solar?"

"Yes, Shadow-sama." The words seemed almost dragged from him, and with a little prompting he repeated his orders, an expression of pure hatred on his face.

:Bakura's going a little far don't you think mou hitori no boku:

-I don't know aibou. I don't think I'd trust him around you without those orders, I know I'll be alert to any danger from him even _with_ them.- Yami sounded hesitant to disagree with him, but he still did, and Yugi knew he had to listen to Yami's worries.

"Take your shirt off so I can finish setting up the cover story Solar. Rukaiya, you have packed for him as I specified haven't you?" Ryou turned to the woman as Solar obeyed, pulling off his deep green shirt to reveal bruises that spanned ages from a week to two days old. Yugi couldn't help but gasp at the sight. Bakura stepped up to Yugi, taking hold of his arm when he was about to go over to Solar.

"Don't Yugi-dono. None of those bruises are more than a day old, he heals fast, and can speed his own healing anyway. We needed a reason for him to live with you, and this is what Seraph-sama came up with." Since Ryou had just broken Solar's ribs from the sound of it that wasn't very reassuring. "Rukaiya, get the bag you packed for him and the bandages." And now Ryou had his hands on Solar's chest, doing something.

"What did you come up with that you have to beat him like this?" Yugi couldn't believe how callous his friend was being, it wasn't the Ryou he knew.

-But it is Seraph, did you really think he could have turned Bakura into Shadow without being brutal? He told us about defeating Shadow in more than one fight and how he's a killer, he sounded almost proud of it.- Yami sounded surprised that Yugi had faith in Ryou, but he brushed that off.

"Yugi-dono, you don't need to know."

"No, you don't. It would be suspicious if you knew. But I expect your mother will tell you a little, and then you can ask him about what the cover story is." Ryou's voice made it very clear he didn't expect any questions, and Yugi reluctantly accepted it.

--0--


	11. Chapter 11

Warning: Tendershipping with Ryou seme

This is AU, seriously so

:blah: hikari to yami telepathy

-blah- yami to hikari telepathy

"Yugi-dono, it would probably be a bit suspicious if you came with us when we brought Solar to the Game Shop." This wasn't something he'd discussed with Seraph, or even something he'd mentioned to his master through their mind link, and Bakura kept his eyes cast down as he released Yugi's arm and brought up something that the others seemed to have missed. "As far as your family know you haven't even heard of him," Bakura tilted his chin to indicate Solar, relieved that Seraph didn't seem to be angry, yet. "We needed you here so I could identify you to him, and give him the instruction to protect you and yours in your hearing, nothing else. It would surprise your family if you seemed to be aware of the situation we've made up as an excuse for him to stay with you for a while." Bakura knew all about it of course, he'd done the hacking to provide the electronic records to support the story, including a few hospital visits and documented suspicions of domestic abuse, in another city of course.

"So you're telling me to what? Run along and play?" Yugi didn't sound happy about the idea, and Bakura couldn't blame him, if that was how he'd interpreted his words. It wasn't what he'd _meant_, but if it was what Yugi'd _heard_...he glanced over at Seraph for help without intending to, and his master laughed quietly.

"Not quite, but you could stay here and Rukaiya could teach you a few simple trick to get out some types of unwelcome hold, apparently she knew about them before Solar acquired her." Bakura didn't want to think about how Solar had acquired her and hadn't asked, it bothered him that people were bought and sold as property now, because that was what Seraph had made him. It shouldn't have mattered to him, he hadn't actually owned any slaves when he first lived, they'd have been a liability for him, but they'd been common enough.

"All right." Yugi calmed down as soon as Seraph mentioned something useful for him to do. He seemed to have forgotten that _Bakura_ was supposed to be his teacher, but Bakura didn't mind that at all. Rukaiya'd returned with Solar's bag and the bandages while they were arguing and she'd started wrapping his ribs with startling skill. Not that Bakura would call attention to it in front of Yugi, but it was something to bear in mind for the future.

"Is he ready Rukaiya?" By speaking over him Seraph was humiliating Solar even more, Bakura watched his master's small display of sadism appreciatively.

"He just needs to dress again." Then she turned to Yugi. "Yugi-dono, I think we should go somewhere else to practise, the garden perhaps?"

"Oh, yes." Yugi sounded a little eager, and, looking at Rukaiya, Bakura couldn't quite blame him. He followed her out easily enough and Bakura slid a casual arm around Solar's waist, as rehearsed. Solar didn't need the support, but it gave the right impression, as did the way Seraph carried his bag, light as it was. They hadn't given a specific time they'd be arriving, so they walked slowly, instead of roofhopping...especially since the adults would have a hard time understanding that as they didn't know about Seraph, about what they did.

It was the woman who opened the door, Yugi's mother, and she looked worried to see how Bakura was supporting 'his cousin'.

"Bakura-kun, Hiei-kun. Please come in. Is this Kage-kun? How badly hurt is he?"

:Tell them he's got three broken ribs, from two days ago. And a lot of bruises.: They'd agreed that Bakura would answer any questions about Solar's condition considering that he was the one claiming to be related to him.

"Three broken ribs, he refused to go to hospital, he's scared that his 'lover' might be able to find him using that. But we bandaged him up properly, and he should recover without problems. This is the first time Himura's gone beyond bruises. I'm just grateful that this was enough to get Solar to leave him. We've been trying to persuade him to for a while now."

"You need to see a doctor Kage-kun." She sounded appropriately shocked at their story, even if Bakura found the idea of an Adept going to a doctor for something as minor as broken ribs ridiculous.

"Please, Mutou-san, a doctor wouldn't do anything that Bakura-san hasn't. I'll be fine in a few weeks, I just have to be careful until then." His plea seemed to be enough to get her to agree.

"Very well then. But...is this all that you have? Surely you need more than that."

"It was all I could get out of the house without him noticing." Solar looked appropriately downtrodden.

"Mutou-san, I thought perhaps you could take him shopping tomorrow. I'll reimburse you, or you can come to my house first and Rukaiya can give you the money to fund Solar's new wardrobe." She looked uncertain and Seraph smiled at her reassuringly. "We can afford it easily. I've got a very large trust fund, I'll never have to work a day in my life if I don't want to. That's why my father's such a well-known archaeologist, he can fund any dig it takes his fancy to." Lies, but lies delivered so believably that she didn't question it.

"All right then."

"Thank you Bakura-san." After that Seraph made an excuse about Rukaiya preparing a meal for them and they left.

--0--

-Aibou, I know you need these lessons, but might I speak to Rukaiya at some point while you are with her?- Yami had been wanting to speak to the dark woman alone, or at least without Seraph or Shadow around since he'd heard about her.

"Rukaiya, mou hitori no boku wants to speak to you. Will that be a problem?" He hadn't expected Yugi to just ask the woman right out for some reason, he wasn't sure why not.

"No, I can show you a few hold breakers, and then give you time to think over them while I'm talking to your yami. Once we're finished talking I can test you on them, and correct you if I need to."

:Is that okay mou hitori no boku: Yami was surprised at the question, especially as Yugi smiled at Rukaiya. "That will be fine. Thank you for agreeing."

-Yes, of course it's okay. I'm sorry to be taking from your life like this aibou.-

"And mou hitori no boku thanks you as well." There wasn't even a break in Yugi's speech to Rukaiya. The woman looked confused at that for some reason, but she started teaching Yugi the hold breakers, starting with four ways to break the four different ways one person could grab hold of his wrist from in front of him. Yami liked it that Shadow was focused first on making sure Yugi could defend himself, without needing to resort to Shadow Magic, since that would make a good basis when he added Shadow Magic.

Yami'd paid full attention at first, but he retreated further into Yugi's mind as his hikari focused more on the techniques Rukaiya was showing him. It wasn't that he felt slighted, bored, unwelcome, ignored or anything like that, but he didn't want to distract Yugi, and he was afraid that what _he_ remembered might leak over to Yugi and interfere in his learning. So he was surprised when Yugi contacted him.

:Mou hitori no boku. Rukaiya says she can speak to you now.:

-Thank you.- And Yami came forward to speak with her.

"I need to start preparing a meal for Seraph-sama and Shadow-dono, so you'll have to talk while I work." Yami had a feeling that she wouldn't have made that demand of Yugi, but he couldn't explain why, and he didn't have any right to object, so he followed her into the kitchen. "What did you want to talk to me about? I've only belonged to Shadow-dono for five days even looking at it generously. And he's the one you're interested in, isn't he?"

Yami knew he was blushing, the _way_ she said 'interested in'...implied things he'd rather not think about. "I used to hate him, until I learned that he'd been playing a part. Now Seraph scares me. He doesn't scare you?"

"Why should he. Shadow-dono owns me, and servants rarely need to be disciplined the way concubines and Consorts do since we are less intimately linked to our masters." That sounded unpleasant, but there was something else...

"Shadow owns you, not Seraph? And less intimately linked?"

"I belonged to Solar, when he was made bondservant to Shadow-dono he became Shadow-dono's property to dispose of as he wished, as did I and Antonia. Shadow-dono belongs to Seraph-sama himself of course, but I am still Shadow-dono's property first and then Seraph-sama's. Less intimately linked means that I will only be punished if I fail to do the work I am ordered to do, which is little enough in this household it seems."

"And what about concubines and Consorts?" That was what worried him.

"I don't know what Seraph-sama is like, but Solar punished me for failing to meet his expectations in bed and sometimes just if he was in a bad mood when I was his concubine. I understand that is fairly common, and Consorts are always punished for slips in situational awareness, sometimes for not living up to their masters' expectations in combat as well as in bed. But I don't think Seraph-sama is like that."

"But you don't _know_ for certain." None of this had done anything to ease Yami's worries about Shadow's situation, still Rukaiya hadn't had to answer his questions. "Thank you anyway. Might I speak to you later perhaps, when you have more experience with this household?"

"If Seraph-sama and Shadow-dono grant permission of course." That was probably the best offer he was going to get.

"I see. Then tell me when you want to test Aibou."

--0--

Yugi went over the moves Rukaiya had taught him in his mind as he walked home. Each one would be useful, but he knew that he wasn't anywhere near ready to actually fight yet. for the moment he was still dependent on Yami's protection. He'd never minded it before, when he knew that Ryou was being abused by _his_ yami, he'd loved it that Yami had always thought about protecting him first, but now that Ryou had shown everyone how good a fighter he was Yugi resented it just a bit. Not that he'd ever let Yami know any of this. And anyway he was getting the training to deal with things himself now and he appreciated it, even if he didn't entirely trust his teacher.

:What did you want to talk to Rukaiya about anyway mou hitori no boku: Yugi paused, he didn't want to invade Yami's privacy he was just curious. :If you don't want to tell me I'll understand.:

-I just wanted to learn a bit more about how a Consort lives and how Adepts treat them. I don't really trust what Seraph and Shadow say about it. Seraph because he thinks he owns Shadow and he's abused him until he accepted that, and Shadow because he's been abused so badly that he thinks the way Seraph treats him is normal.- Yugi wasn't sure that Yami's interpretation was correct, Ryou wouldn't abuse anyone, and even Bakura'd said he was right to punish him yesterday. But he'd let Yami think what he wanted, it wasn't as if he'd be able to change his mind, not easily, and it wasn't worth the trouble. After all it wasn't as if Bakura mattered now that he wasn't a threat anymore.

:Did you hear what you wanted to hear then:

-She couldn't give me any details about Seraph; she hasn't been with him long enough and apparently she technically belongs to Shadow, not Seraph; and she wasn't willing to go into details about how Solar treated her, not that I blame her. Instead I got generalisations about how concubines and Consorts are usually treated. She said that if she gets permission I can speak to her when she has more experience in Seraph's household.- There was something strange about the way Yami hesitated before continuing. -That is if you're willing to allow me to speak to her again.-

:Yes, of course you can.: Yugi responded absently as he let himself into the Game Shop. It was nearly time for tea, but Yugi still went straight up to his bedroom, setting out his books for his homework. He knew he was delaying meeting with Solar, but the sheer hatred on his face when he confirmed Bakura's orders had been scary, and so had the things Ryou had said about him before.

"Yugi, it's time to eat!" He'd delayed a bit too long and Kaasan shouted up for him.

"Coming Kaasan." They wouldn't expect him to know about Solar, so when he saw the golden haired man at the table he paused in what would look like surprise. "Who's that?"

"Mutou Yugi show some manners." Yugi winced as his mother used his full name, she only did that when he was in trouble. "This is Kage Solar. He's Hiei-kun's cousin and he'll be living with us for a while."

"Hello Kage-san. I apologise if I was rude." Yugi let his distrust of the man show in his eyes and his slight anger show in his voice, Solar seemed to be a bit scared by that.

"You don't have anything to apologise for Mutou-kun." Solar was making a point of keeping his eyes lowered, it probably fit whatever cover story Ryou'd beaten him up for. "You were surprised to see me. Are you sure you don't need any help with that Mutou-san?"

"Yes, you're our guest. You don't have to help." Kaasan smiled down at Solar. "Besides you're not really in any condition to help out."

"Please, as long as I move slowly and carefully it isn't that bad. Bakura-san gave me painkillers." Solar glanced up at her with a slight smile, and Yugi saw how he tried to use his beauty to manipulate her. "Besides, I thought you'd agreed to grant me sanctuary for a few months, long enough that he'll lose interest in me. I can hardly be a guest for so long."

"Bakura-kun insists on paying for your room and board very generously. And you're too badly injured to help at the moment." Kaasan sounded reproving. "But...you can start helping with the chores when you're fully recovered...when a _doctor_ gives you a clean bill of health."

"Yes Mutou-san." Yugi saw his small, smug smile as Solar looked back down to the table. Obviously this was the reaction he'd wanted, but there was nothing Yugi could do about that.

--0--

Ryou frowned at Shadow as they ate, he'd been remiss in training him recently, spending most of their time together fucking him instead. At first he'd had a good reason not to train him, after all there wouldn't have been much point in training him while he was under the influence of Solar's drug cocktail, but he _should_ have started training him again when it wore off. But Shadow looked nervous, and he shouldn't be, he hadn't done anything wrong after all. It wasn't his responsibility to ask for training, only to maintain his abilities enough to keep his place by surviving testing.

"It's okay Shadow. I was just thinking that it's been too long since we worked on your training together. Have you been keeping it up by yourself?"

"When I can Seraph-sama." Shadow bowed his head submissively. "I do not always have time, but I do isometrics as I can, and when I know I have sufficient free time I do a more vigorous work out." That was good, not enough to improve his abilities, but still good.

"I'll spell your silver bracelets and anklets to increase their weight enough that it will keep you in training and help build your strength a bit, before we go to school tomorrow. Remind me if I seem to have forgotten."

"Yes Seraph-sama." He looked a bit dispirited by that, but accepting and he should have known better than to expect to be allowed to give up on his training like that. On the other hand...Ryou thought about his _own_ training since his power binders had stopped working - he _hadn't_ bothered to replace them with weighted wrist and ankle bands, and he should have. It was an easy way to make him feel better, and Shadow'd spelled Yugi's wrist and ankle bands without problems.

"I need to start wearing weighted wrist and ankle bands again, you can do the spells for that if you want." Shadow glanced up at that, eyes wide with surprise before he lowered them again, a faint smile on his face.

"If you think that I will be able to Seraph-sama." Rukaiya looked shocked by that, but she didn't say anything, she almost _never_ spoke around him unless Ryou or Shadow spoke to her directly.

"You did well enough for Yugi. Rukaiya, you did well." She'd proved that she was a good cook with this, and from what he'd seen she'd taught Yugi a couple of useful tricks. "Go get your bracelets and anklets now Shadow, along with some wrist and ankle bands to spell for me."

"Yes Seraph-sama." Ryou left Rukaiya to clear the table and met with Shadow to start working on the spells. They were relatively simple, but it would take a while for them to work out the right masses and make certain they would do what was needed. It took enough time to give them a chance for their meals to settle in their stomachs and Ryou began searching his collection of cards for an appropriate sparring partner for Shadow. The Flame Swordsman would do, it was common enough.

"Shadow, I've got a sparring partner for you, and I want to see how well you do, with no use of magic."

"Sparring partner?" Shadow looked up at Ryou apprehensively. "You mean like the sort of sparring partner you had while you were training intensively?"

"Yes, but don't worry. The one I've picked's a bit more intelligent than most of the ones you used, he'll stick to sparring, nothing more."

"You wanted powerful fighters as your opponents, the strongest that won't just blast you with magic are all animals as a rule, that or the ones that won't hold back in a fight for any reason." Shadow kept his eyes cast down as he explained his reasoning, and Ryou laughed lightly at that.

"I know. And I didn't want them to hold back. Come, I want to see you fight." Ryou summoned Celtic Guardian once they reached the garden and instructed the duel monster to spar with Shadow, standing back to watch how he did. He'd deliberately left Shadow at a disadvantage due to his lack of any weapon and he wanted to see how his Consort dealt with that. Ryou wouldn't have bothered trying to form a weapon, he'd have relied on his magic and ki to speed his healing enough to counter that and just attacked, but Shadow formed a sword of Shadow Magic, without even thinking about it apparently. He saw some weaknesses in Shadow's style and once he'd dismissed the duel monster he began to explain them to his Consort, planning how to work on them.

--0--

"Why'd you ask us to walk with you to school today? Won't you be doing that roofhopping thing you both like so much?" Bakura was a bit surprised that Jounouchi was the only one to really question their request as they made their way into school the next day. He shouldn't have been, despite his reputation the blond was smart, at least when it came to people, even if he wasn't really good at schoolwork.

"I've been neglecting my training, and my Shadow's training. We're both wearing weights at our wrists and ankles like Yugi is at the moment, albeit heavier. Until we've gotten used to it I don't want Shadow to risk roofhopping." Seraph shrugged as he answered for the two of them, and Bakura kept his eyes cast down, blushing. He just hoped he'd set the spells up right for Seraph, the ones on his bracelets and anklets were just fine, even a little lighter than he'd expected.

"Do you mean I'm going to have to keep on wearing these for ten years?" Yugi didn't sound happy about that, not that Bakura really blamed him.

"No, of course not." Seraph laughed at the idea. "Once you've gotten a decent amount of power you'll find alternatives, and besides they'll start to feel pretty light after a while. These are really more a comfort thing for me than anything else, my real training is fighting with duel monsters directly, that or sparring with another Adept." Bakura didn't say anything about how ridiculous it seemed for these things to be 'a comfort', they were harder to deal with than his weighted vest had been, even if he was sure that they didn't mass as much, even all combined. He was too busy trying to avoid showing the aches and pains from restarting his training to really pay any attention to the conversation beyond that.

Then he stumbled, only for Seraph to catch him and set him back upright quickly.

"What happened Bakura-kun?" Anzu sounded concerned about him, and he still couldn't quite understand _why_. He'd been their enemy for long enough, and among the Adepts no one would have cared, except to note that he was likely to be weak.

"I've never worn weights at my wrists and ankles before and I'm not used to dealing with how they put me off balance. The weighted vest I wore while Seraph-sama was first training me distributed the weight far more evenly." Bakura shrugged, he knew he was blushing faintly at his clumsiness.

"They aren't bothering me like that." Yugi sounded surprised by Bakura's problems and he blushed deeper.

"Well yours are a lot lighter than his." Bakura smiled as Seraph defended him, pushing his hand through his hair and taking a deep breath to center himself. "Still, I expect you to be past this tomorrow."

"I will Seraph-sama, I promise." He knew that he had to be, and that his master wasn't expecting anything of him that Seraph hadn't been able to do himself, at a younger age. Besides the weights Seraph was wearing at his wrists and ankles each weighed nearly five times what the ones Bakura wore did, and he was adjusting already. And he didn't think his master was going to insist he do the same sort of 'unarmed' combat training he had with the Celtic Guardian tonight as he had last night. And he wouldn't be aching for long today anyway, it was only hurting at the moment because Seraph hadn't healed him fully from the injuries last night, leaving him to finish healing overnight and ache for part of the day.

"We'll see. It's a good thing we don't have P.E. today. That gives you more time to get used to them." Since Bakura wasn't allowed to wear his bracelets and anklets during P.E. while Yugi and Seraph could easily wear their weighted wrist and ankle bands without anyone noticing.

"Yes Seraph-sama." Bakura bit his lip, calculating odds before he risked speaking. "Might I just do katas tonight, under your supervision, rather than sparring with a duel monster?"

"You should have been doing your katas without needing me to supervise from the time you recovered from that drug cocktail, even enough to keep your balance through one. You'd be in better condition now if you had." Bakura's condition hadn't declined that much, but he knew better than to protest, especially considering what sort of condition Seraph considered normal. "But I'll decide on which katas I want to see you run through and probably show you a new one to work on your weak spots."

"Thank you Seraph-sama" What else could he say?

--0--


	12. Chapter 12

Warning: Tendershipping with Ryou seme

This is AU, seriously so

:blah: hikari to yami telepathy

-blah- yami to hikari telepathy

Yugi found it hard to believe that on the walk into school Bakura had enough trouble with the same measure he'd told Yugi to take to stumble when he was usually so graceful, even when he'd been under the influence of the drugs Solar gave him. And it was even harder to believe that Ryou had half expected him to stumble and that was why they'd walked in to school with Yugi and his other friends, especially since Bakura was moving as smoothly as ever by the end of school.

"You've adapted pretty quickly Bakura." Jounouchi seemed equally suspicious.

"Not well enough to roofhop yet I don't think. Seraph-sama, I think tonight I should mostly do some mid-air work and some more practice on how to fall, since that would require more balance adjustments than working on the ground." Bakura sounded weirdly uncertain about his suggestion and tried to hide his face behind his hair as he spoke.

"Well thought Shadow. I'll put the katas I wanted you to do off until tomorrow and select your katas by the criteria you suggested." Ryou hesitated before turning to speak to Yugi. "I'd rather not have my Consort try to roofhop this week. Would you mind walking with us tomorrow and Saturday?"

-Interesting assumption there, accurate, but still interesting.- Yugi jumped a bit as Yami contacted him.

:What assumption: Then he answered Ryou's question without waiting for Yami's answer. "If you think you need it sure, we'll meet you tomorrow then..." He trailed off, waiting for confirmation, from the way they'd been speaking Yugi expected them to spend the rest of the day training.

"Thank you. Are you going to start to work with the training dummy we provided today, or wait for him to 'heal'?" Ryou's question was a pretty heavy hint about what he wanted the answer to be, so...

"Of course I'll start practising with Solar. And he can tell me about that cover story you won't talk about."

"If you want. I only refused to tell you anything so that you'd react naturally to whatever your mother told you about him." Then why didn't Ryou tell him now?

"All she said was that he'd be living with us for a while." Yugi knew he sounded bitter, and he was looking forward to interrogating Solar. :You never answered my question Yami.:

"Well, you can ask him now. We'll need to figure out an excuse for when you're tired of him, but that can come later. See you all tomorrow." Bakura made his farewells as they turned off to their house and Yami finally answered Yugi.

-I'm sorry, I was waiting for you to finish your conversation with Seraph.- That bugged Yugi just a bit, that Yami would always call Ryou 'Seraph', and never by his real name, but he'd given up objecting. -Seraph assumed that you were the leader of the group, you are, but no one else ever acknowledged it, even implicitly the way he just did.-

:Oh.: That gave him something to think about. Yugi'd never thought of himself as a leader, but _Yami_, and apparently others saw him that way. Were they wrong, or was he? He kept on thinking about that until he got home and went looking for Solar.

"I need to practise my nerve pinches now. And I want to know about the story you cooked up to explain why you're staying here."

"Perform each nerve pinch on me once, then I'll tell you while I'm recovering, Yugi-san." Solar's voice sounded a bit uncertain, but Yugi dismissed that and agreed to his suggestion, trying each nerve pinch he could find. A couple of times he needed to check his chart, or repeat the pinches to get them in the right place but Solar didn't complain.

"Well?" It had taken him ten minutes to go through all of the pinches, now he was demanding answers.

"It will take me half an hour to recover from this, I'll tell you what you want to know, then you could do another practice session like this with Yami-san and then practise again on me before we go down for dinner. That would help me remember to move a bit stiffly, since I'm almost healed and your mother cannot be allowed to know this." Yugi'd got used to that, keeping secrets, even if he didn't like it that much.

"Go on, tell me then."

"As far as your mother knows I've just escaped from an abusive relationship, oh, and by the way my 'lover' supported me, so I have no money of my own and I'm dependent on my 'cousin's' charity." He sounded bitter, but he'd told Yugi more than enough and he just nodded and mumbled something about working with Yami now.

--0--

Bakura wanted to curse as he tried to jump straight up onto the roof of their house...he'd forgotten how demanding Seraph was, he shouldn't have but he had. And he'd also forgot that Seraph considered knowing how to fall to mean 'knowing how to fall off the top of a building'. It could be worse, he knew that for a fact. He'd seen the way one Adept trained, fastening twenty pound weights to the inside of his coat, letting them swing freely and hit him as he trained, that had to be even worse for the balance than these weights were. He'd spent the last two hours jumping, leaping and twisting to avoid balls being thrown at him while he was in mid-air, not to mention being tossed from the roof, trees and walls. And this time he just didn't have the energy to jump high enough, falling just a little short and pushing himself away from the wall. But at least he managed to land safely, evidence that he'd relearned how to fall properly with the weights on his wrists and ankles.

"Enough. You're getting too tired to be any good at this. We'll try again an hour after we've finished eating." Then Seraph lifted his head and _sniffed_. "And I think Rukaiya's almost finished cooking anyway." Bakura followed his lead, scenting the air, he could smell the bread she'd obviously just taken out of the oven, made from the dough he'd prepared.

"Not quite I don't think, Seraph-sama, but nearly." Seraph had been working out as well, Bakura hadn't had time to throw anything at him so he'd recruited Red Archer Girl to shoot at Seraph when _he_ was jumping and everything else he did at twice the speed Bakura did, so he had time to monitor Bakura's training.

"Rukaiya, do we have enough time to get a shower before you need to dish out?"

"If you're quick, Seraph-sama." She frowned, obviously unhappy to have to say the next part. "But you won't have time to have sex I'm afraid."

"We can do that _afterwards_ can't we Shadow?" There was a note of lust in Seraph's voice, as he guided Bakura from the kitchen, but somehow he was sure that _this_ time he was being offered a genuine choice, that he really did have the option of saying no. The only problem was that he was certain saying 'no' would mean going into training straight from dinner, and he didn't want that; besides it wasn't as if Seraph ever hurt him.

"Of course. Shall we share a shower?" Seraph usually couldn't keep his hands off him when they shared a shower, unless he was cleaning Bakura up after sex, but...

"Let's avoid temptation. You go first...and feel free to primp while I'm in." Bakura bit his lip, nodding to acknowledge the thinly veiled order. His clothes were disgusting, they went straight down the laundry chute, but he had another two school uniforms kept in the house anyway. He scrubbed himself clean in a few minutes then wrapped himself in the red yukata and left the bathroom for Seraph. No point in lipstick, it wore off too quickly, but he lined his eyes with frankincense and smeared just a little bit of myrrh just above his groin. Then he pulled on a pair of black leather pants and a simple, but _tight_ red cotton T-shirt, practical if Seraph insisted on him doing some more training, but it would appeal to his master enough to possibly distract him.

Rukaiya'd prepared a venison and rabbit stew and set a loaf of bread out for each of them, Bakura couldn't help but think that he'd have done better, even though he was relieved not to have to do all the cooking anymore. As he ate he was careful to do things that he knew turned Seraph on, but things that wouldn't give his plan away, like letting a bit of sauce drip onto his hand and licking it away.

"Shadow, there's another aspect of your skills that might have got rusty. And I can't test you on that myself." Seraph sounded a bit rueful about that, and Bakura could see the slight signs of shock on Rukaiya's face at such an admission. But Bakura knew precisely what he was talking about.

"So, what do you want me to steal and who from?"

"Kaiba, the elder Kaiba, and anything from his home, but preferably information from his computer system, as well protected as you can get. But I'll settle for an ornament that could only come from there." Bakura bit his lip at that, thinking about it.

"I'll need some time to figure out how to do this, there's a lot of research that goes into planning a proper theft, even more now than in my first life."

"You have a week." Nowhere near enough time, not even with the use of duel monsters to gather information, but all that meant was that Bakura'd have to improvise a bit. Seraph did grant him some leniency, and Bakura knew his horror at the idea had to have shown on his face, as well as his determination to try anyway. "But I'll only expect two hours of katas from you daily until you've completed the theft."

"I'll do my best Seraph-sama."

--0--

Yami was grateful for Solar's advice to Yugi about how to practise his nerve pinches, even if he didn't like the Adept himself. He'd had time to recover between the pinches, and it hadn't hurt for anywhere near as long. Yugi'd spent the time while he was recovering and while Solar was recovering on his homework last night, and he'd just had time for a practice session with each of them this morning. He was getting faster and better at locating the nerve points and by now he didn't bother consulting the chart Shadow'd given him or need to repeat when he made mistakes. Yami _hoped_ that Shadow would decide to test Yugi the next time he had a lesson with him, so he wouldn't have to play practice dummy anymore, but he didn't really expect it.

He didn't bother trying to encourage Yugi to get off to school on time any more; he'd never done that as more than part of his duty, and he'd lost so much influence over Yugi since Seraph had told them what he was that Yami was determined to keep what little influence he had left for _important_ things. Yami dismissed that line of thought, focusing on watching through Yugi's eyes as Shadow and Seraph joined them for the walk to school.

-Shadow looks tired.- He couldn't help but pass the observation on to Yugi, as his aibou seemed to ignore the way his feet dragged ever so slightly and the slightly paler tint to his skin.

:What do you want me to do about it: But Yugi did listen to what Yami said, and he actually looked at Shadow before speaking to him. "Bakura, are you all right?"

"Oh!" He looked up and at Yugi with a startled expression. "Yes, I'm fine Yugi-dono. Why wouldn't I be?" Seraph frowned at that and Shadow noticed, even with how faint the frown was. He blushed slightly, dropping his eyes submissively. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't question you. I appreciate your concern Yugi-dono."

"He just didn't get much sleep last night Yugi." There was a smirk on Seraph's lips as he pulled Shadow into his arms, kissing his lover, hands wandering over his body. Shadow blushed even more, hiding his face against Seraph's shoulder.

"Shouldn't we get moving?" Shadow gave a grateful glance to Jounouchi at that comment, and Yami watched from behind Yugi's eyes as they began walking to school again.

"Yugi-dono, do you intend to wear your weights for your lesson with me on Sunday?"

"What? No, I wore them from Tuesday without taking them off." That had been his own idea, one Yami'd been worried about, but admired him for. "I'll be taking them off tonight." He'd said it was easier not to have to remember to put the weights on, or take them off except for at the beginning and end of the four days. Seraph looked half approving, and half disappointed to hear that.

"The longer you wear them for and the more you do while you're wearing them the faster you'll get stronger." Then he shrugged, almost carelessly. "It's lucky for you that my Shadow's the one stuck wasting his time training a child who can't be bothered to do the simplest of tasks on a daily basis. _I'd_ demand you wear those constantly, and if I caught you without them I'd use magic to keep them on your wrists and ankles."

Shadow looked slightly distressed by that, and Yami could feel Yugi's shock, but he knew that his aibou wasn't going to just yield to Seraph, not now.

-Aibou, you do realise that if Seraph tells Shadow not to teach you he won't. And I don't think Jou or Honda could teach you properly.-

:I know that, mou hitori no boku.: Yugi's response was exaggeratedly patient, but at least he wasn't snapping at Seraph.

"I suggested a minimum time per week. But if you wanted to wear the weights for longer it would work even better. Or you could take them off tonight and wear them from Sunday to Wednesday." Yugi seemed taken aback by Shadow's quiet suggestion, Yami wasn't quite sure why.

"I...I'll think about it." But Yami could tell that his aibou didn't want to increase the time he spent wearing those wrist and ankle bands, and he couldn't blame him. They didn't have the chance to talk much longer anyway as they arrived at school before anyone could say anything more.

--0--

Ryou was a bit worried about Shadow; his Consort needed to get stronger, strong enough to live up to his ranking and he'd neglected his skills as a thief over the past year or so. At least the spells on his anklets and bracelets would help him get stronger all the time, so it wasn't too bad that his active training was cut down to just two hours a day. Ryou had tried to help Shadow prepare for the theft he'd decided on as a 'safe' test of his skills by cutting down on his demands for Shadow's attention. He hadn't insisted on Shadow spending most of his time in at least the same room as him, or on knowing where Shadow was when he wasn't near Ryou, instead leaving him to his own devices. But Shadow didn't seem to want to take advantage of that, and he couldn't quite figure out why. He'd expected Shadow to do everything he needed to do in preparation for his theft alone, to keep his secrets from Ryou as much as possible. But what happened was that Shadow spent most of his time curled at Ryou's feet, reading through the information he'd collected and writing down preliminary plans or doing his homework. The only times Shadow wasn't around Ryou were when they needed to go to the toilet or when he needed to talk to the duel monsters he'd set to spy on Kaiba.

And he was getting jumpy, partly, Ryou thought because he hadn't demanded his rights to Shadow's body more than twice a day, once when they went to bed and once when they woke up. He normally made a point of taking Shadow at various times between those two as well and of petting his Consort whenever he had the chance, but now he was trying not to distract Shadow from his assignment. And there was something about the way he reacted whenever Rukaiya was in the same room, Ryou was pretty sure that his Shadow didn't focus on what he was doing _then_. He got tired of the way Shadow was acting shortly after they'd eaten on Saturday evening.

"Rukaiya, leave us for a while. Go do the laundry or something." She didn't say anything, just bowed her head and obeyed. He hoped there was _something_ she could do to keep herself occupied, but he didn't care, as long as she was out of the way for a while. Then Ryou turned to Shadow, twining a hand in his hair to get his attention.

"Seraph-sama?" His Consort's response was instant, all Shadow's attention trained purely on him.

"What's going on?" Ryou knew his voice was accusing, and that it wasn't the right tone to take with his Consort even as he said it, something that was only confirmed when Shadow tried to cringe under his gaze. Ryou took a deep breath and consciously softened his voice, making sure he sounded calm, soothing, and that there was nothing in his voice that could be mistaken for anger. "Shadow, I thought you'd want to have more free time to plan your theft, you were upset at the time limit, so I decided not to make my usual demands on your time. So why have you been clinging to me and watching Rukaiya the way you have?"

"I...I didn't know that." He tried to bow his head, hide the tears welling in his eyes, but Ryou pulled on his hair just hard enough to keep watching his face, the play of emotions fascinating. "I...you didn't _say_ you were just giving me some more free time. I...I thought you were getting tired of me or something, tired of having to train me because I'm an obligation you took on five years ago. Or you wanted a change of pace and that you were planning to enjoy Rukaiya, to make her your concubine or something."

Ryou blinked, letting go of Shadow's hair, not even really noticing when he buried his face in his hands. Rukaiya was a _servant_, and she technically belonged to _Shadow_ at that. He didn't want someone that weak in his bed - he'd have to hold back so much that it wouldn't be any fun, that or spend more time healing her than fucking her. What gave Shadow the idea that he'd want a woman? If he ever did it would be a woman who could fight at least as well as Shadow could, not someone like Rukaiya, even if she had some spirit and could defend herself against normal people she seemed more like a doll than a person to him. He sighed and pulled Shadow up into his lap.

"Do you really believe that I'd ever give you up?" He wrapped his hand around Shadow's throat to encourage the correct answer.

"N-no Seraph-sama." Shadow's voice was choked by tears and Ryou threw him to the floor, joining him there and pulling his clothes off, preparing him roughly before taking him.

--0--

Yugi was _not_ going to wear those weights while he was training, even if Bakura did think it would help. The thief'd worked him to collapse last Sunday and he wasn't going to make it any easier for him to do the same thing today. And he wasn't going to give up the Shadow Magic protections Yami gave him, not yet anyway.

He let Yami take over their body to set up the traps while he got a bit of a nap in his soul room once he reached the gym Bakura was teaching him in, but Yami called him back when Bakura arrived - alone for a change. He looked over Yugi's body, apparently noting everything about him with a faint air of disappointment.

"We can start by testing you on what you learned from Rukaiya." Then Bakura grabbed him by the wrist, and Yugi tried to get him to let go the way Rukaiya'd shown him. "No, that wasn't quite right." He proceeded to test Yugi by trying to bring out the counters Rukaiya'd taught him, and correcting the mistakes Yugi made, except for the one case where he pulled it off perfectly, forcing Bakura to let go of his wrist.

"Well done. Did you practise that one more than the others?"

"No." Yugi'd practised on each technique for the same amount of time, with Yami and with Solar. He hadn't expected _Yami_ to know what he was doing well enough to correct him when he went wrong, but he'd thought _Solar_ would tell him if he was messing up.

"Let's try another technique." There was a faint tone of hope in Bakura's voice now, and it bugged Yugi, but he didn't protest. Bakura didn't really react when he screwed up the next technique was tested on, just frowned faintly and corrected him again, but when he'd tested everything Rukaiya'd taught him Bakura ran Yugi through them again.

"I'll test you on these again at the end of today's lesson. But now I want you to warm up, you know how, and then do ten laps of the gym, as fat as you can, followed by fifty each of sit-ups and push-ups. Then I'll show you how to punch properly."

Yugi frowned, but he still obeyed, surprised at how _light_ a workout it was compared to what Bakura'd demanded the first time. Bakura seemed to notice this, because he stopped Yugi after he'd done the warm up Bakura'd shown him last time.

"You're surprised that I'm not going to work you to collapse today. I should explain. There wouldn't be any point exhausting you at the moment, now would there? You know how to access your ki, and if you're exhausted when you learn to do something like this you're more likely to learn it _wrong_ and instil habits that will be hard to break later." He frowned faintly then, somehow making it look good. "You can still remember how to access your ki, can't you? Demonstrate for me before you get a start on your laps."

Yugi bit his lip - he hadn't done this since Monday, and he wasn't sure he still could - but he did manage to find his ki, eventually, and it was a bit larger than it had been before, not much, but he did notice it.

"You found that harder than it should have been Yugi-dono. I want you to repeat that exercise daily. Now, pull yourself together and start running." Yugi knew he was flushing faintly, but he went back to the laps he was supposed to be running.

"I'd suggest a minimum of twenty each sit-ups and push-ups a day, or ten if that's all you're willing to do. And I'd prefer it if you _ran_ to school on the mornings, instead of walking." Yugi scowled at the idea as he did his tenth sit-up. The sit-ups and push-ups weren't a bad idea by themselves, but _running_ to school instead of walking? Bakura seemed to sense that, and reduced his demands. "Or at least run for two or three blocks, your school bag will work nicely as an additional weight to build up your strength then."

"Okay." He still didn't like it, but if it would make him less helpless...

The next lesson was more to his taste. Bakura demonstrated precisely how to throw a punch with his right arm, then had Yugi try to replicate that, correcting him as he needed, even going so far as to take hold of Yugi's hand and arm and move them into a better position himself at times.

"Good. Try throwing ten punches like that now. If your form stays good," And he'd know because the punching bag was spelled to glow when he got the punch right. "you can try with your other arm."

Yugi went home carrying the punching bag, with instructions to try to do at least five punches on each hand a day, only of the sort Bakura'd taught, in addition to his physical conditioning and nerve pinch practice.

--0--


	13. Chapter 13

Warning: Tendershipping with Ryou seme

This is AU, seriously so

:blah: hikari to yami telepathy

-blah- yami to hikari telepathy

Bakura knew that he could do this, he _had_ to, and do it now, since he'd run up against Seraph's deadline. It helped a bit that Kaiba'd actually _built_ a few weaknesses into his defences, the weaknesses he'd used to help in dealing with his enemies when Pegasus had been trying to take over his precious Kaiba Corp using his even more precious little brother. But not much since he had to get over the walls without alerting any guards and he'd beefed up the other security measures since then. There were spikes at the top of the wall now, and he had the feeling it was electrified at night as well. Bakura shrugged, he was allowed to use magic, if he had to, and he could jump the wall easily enough, even cloaking himself in Shadow Magic to keep anyone from seeing him.

Now! He timed his jump for the single moment no camera would catch it, without needing to resort to Shadow Magic to remain unseen, finding shelter in the garden before he'd be seen. Then he took every bit of shade and shelter he could to camouflage his movement, taking advantage of the human tendency to dismiss things that didn't fit a 'normal' pattern when it came to movement, never moving too fast or too slow when there was any chance a camera could be on him. It helped as well that Seraph had let him take his jewellery off so he didn't have to worry about the weights at his wrists and ankles slowing him down and putting him off-balance.

At the mansion itself he disabled the alarm swiftly - he'd spent a few hours practising on this specific type after he'd found out it was what Kaiba used. Then he moved inside and picked up what _had_ to be a custom made sculpture of a Blue Eyes White Dragon from the living room before moving on to the nearest office. No one else was obsessed enough with the things to pay for a sculpture with sapphires for eyes and pearl scales after all and it was small enough to be easily portable.

Even to get the computer turned on he had to use a password, and the space for the login was blank, he didn't have the choice of selecting a login name from a list. Good security, except that Bakura had already monitored Kaiba logging in using Shadow Magic. He'd needed to get the right angle and timing, and that had been hard, or would have if he hadn't been able to get the Dark Witch to monitor the spell for him.

He couldn't risk turning on the lights, in case they were monitored...he didn't think they were, but Kaiba had his home computerised a lot, and he was running enough of a risk by turning a computer on. He ameliorated that risk a bit by using Shadow Magic to confuse the location, and shield the sounds and light from the screen, but it was still a risk, albeit a necessary one.

He loved pen drives, easy to use, lots of storage, and nice and compact so he could hide them just as easily...five years ago if he'd tried to do this he'd have had to use a whole bunch of floppies or bring in an external hard drive. First something that was held on this computer, but without any password protection...easy enough, there was a school project of Mokuba's for some reason.

Next, something a bit better hidden...Bakura frowned, considering his options. He could try to see if there was anything good on this computer, or he could risk connecting to the internal network and see if he could find anything suitable there.

There wasn't likely to be anything useful on this machine, not worth cracking the security. A smile tugged at his lips as Bakura realised that he had to use _another_ password to actually get onto the network. That was new, but it was something Bakura approved of, and something he'd use in any network he had the chance to set up. Seraph hadn't felt the need for a network yet, or even for much security on his personal computers, but then the security on the important one, the laptop he used for Work was more along the lines of making sure no one else could use it. Seraph had cast a spell that would blow the laptop up if anyone but him or Bakura tried to turn it on and it was _never_ connected to the internet or any sort of network.

What Bakura eventually found had to be some sort of self flagellation for Kaiba, the schematics for one of the weapons Bakura'd heard he designed when he was eleven. He downloaded them to the pen drive, the cheapest one on the market to be honest, and pretty small by modern standards, only 32MB, and began erasing all traces of his presence.

--0--

One of the things Yami loved about his aibou was the way he looked on each day as a new adventure; his grousing about training with Shadow aside he rarely complained the way Yami could hear his friends doing through Yugi's ears. Well, that wasn't quite fair, Jou and Honda complained, but Anzu didn't, and neither did Seraph or Shadow, not about school anyway. And _they_ had reasons for what little they complained about, they lived in a world where they could easily be killed in their political infighting. So he knew that Yugi really was hurting when his aibou began mentally grumbling to him about how much he ached and how tired he was because of the training Shadow'd suggested.

-It will get easier with time, I promise you that.- Moving from the mostly sedentary lifestyle Yugi had to even the light training Shadow had suggested would cause problems at first, especially since Yugi _did_ perform more than the minimum number of the exercises Shadow had set. -You could make it a bit easier if you wanted by cutting down a bit on the sit ups and push ups when you're wearing your weights.- It was the only suggestion he could offer.

:No. I'm not going to cheat on what Bakura wanted, except for making a fool of myself by running to school.: Yugi sounded almost stern, and Yami flinched a bit at that. :But it will get easier you think: Now he seemed to yearn for that time, Yami couldn't blame him for that.

-Yes and no. Doing this much will get easier, but...-

:But what:

-Shadow will be increasing how much you're expected to do as you get fitter. He'll certainly be increasing the weights. And you know that if you skimp on the training he asks you to do you'll only be cheating yourself.-

:I _know_ that. I wasn't going to skimp on anything.:

-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...- Yami wasn't sure what to say, because he _had_ meant to imply that Yugi would skimp on the physical conditioning Shadow wanted him to do when it got harder and he lost his enthusiasm for it. But he didn't have to continue speaking, Seraph and Shadow dropped down from the rooftops to land beside Yugi and interrupting him.

"Hello Yugi."

"Ryou, I thought you two liked running about on the rooftops?"

"It's good training, balance, stamina, and a lot of other things. Not that I ever expect you to be able to roofhop, although you might be able to use the roofs the way any normal thief could." Shadow seemed vaguely ashamed as Seraph explained that. If he'd said that to Yami he was sure he'd have been offended, at least a little bit, by the comparison to a thief and by the implication that he was so much weaker than Seraph and Shadow, even if it was true. But Yugi wasn't, he was well aware of his shortcomings, and confident enough in his strengths not to feel insulted by the truth.

"I wouldn't _want_ to go up there anyway. What did you want to talk to me about?"

"I set a test for Shadow, he passed it yesterday, but there's some things we need to sort out. You're more likely to see Kaiba than we are any time soon, right?"

"He still wants to challenge Yami, not me. So Yami's more likely to be the one to speak to him, you know I usually let him come out to duel for me." Seraph shrugged at that.

"In that case let him out so Shadow can speak to him." Seraph was letting Shadow speak to him? Yami found that hard to believe, and it was even harder to hide his eagerness to hear what Shadow wanted from him. "Please. I'd appreciate it." The assassin offered the belated courtesy with a crooked smile, probably in reaction to something on Yugi's face, but Yami couldn't be certain of that.

"Alright." Yugi pushed Yami to control of his body abruptly, leaving Yami a little disoriented at first.

"What did you need to say to me Shadow?"

"Seraph-sama was testing me to make sure my skills as a thief hadn't deteriorated. I took these from Kaiba's house and computer." Shadow pushed a box and a keyring with a strange black fob at Yami and he fumbled to accept them. "Return them to him when you have a chance, please."

"What are they? I mean, I'll do what you want, but I'd like to know..."

"An ornament, it had to be custom made considering how expensive it must have been, and there's some data on the flash drive." The two of them turned away simultaneously and leapt to the rooftops before Yami could say anything else, and he gave Yugi his body back.

--0--

Bakura went through the katas Seraph had set for him, well aware that his master had been going easy on him for the past week and that the katas were nowhere near enough to prepare him for a real fight. Still, he was dreading whatever Seraph had planned to get him back into condition to actually fight, there was _no one_ available who wasn't either much better or much worse than he was, so he was going to have to 'spar' with Seraph or a duel monster.

"Stop!" He froze at Seraph's order, looking over to where the assassin was doing his own katas in shock. "You were distracted weren't you?"

"Yes, Seraph-sama." Had he messed up somehow? Bakura began desperately reviewing everything he'd been doing, looking for errors.

"But you were still doing pretty well, even with the distraction." Seraph sounded almost pleased, not angry at Bakura's wandering mind. "I could only tell you weren't focused on your katas because I checked with our link. So...I'm going to be quizzing you on poisons or on homework while you do your katas from now on."

"Yes, Seraph-sama." Neither of them used poisons that much, but they did know the basics about how to prepare them, and treat injuries affected by them. At least by forcing Bakura to think about the poisons while he was doing his katas Seraph kept him from worrying over the sparring Seraph would expect him to be doing soon.

"Enough. We can eat, and then spend an hour doing homework before we start to spar." An hour wasn't enough time to do all their homework, but it was enough to make a start at least. "Oh, and I'll be increasing the weights on your wrists and ankles tomorrow, by about a tenth. And I want you to do the same for me, except increase my weights by an eighth."

"Yes Seraph-sama." Bakura began running how he'd need to alter the spells to do what Seraph wanted through his head as he began eating. He knew that he stunk, just like Seraph did, but there was no point in getting a shower now, not when they'd be sparring afterwards. This was another of the spicy stews Rukaiya was best with. Bakura had ended up being the one to cook most of the tuna, and Rukaiya was using far more of the commercial meat she got from the butchers than he did, but she was slowly moving more towards the game he'd always preferred to use.

He pushed the thought of the spellwork to the back of his mind to focus on his homework once they were finished eating, leaving all the clearing up to Rukaiya since that was her job after all. It worked well enough as another distraction from the thought of how badly beaten he was going to be when he was sparring with his master anyway.

"Enough. It's time to spar Shadow." Bakura looked up at Seraph as the assassin rose from the table they were sharing, while fastening his hair back into a low tail for sparring.

"Might I have a few more minutes to write down what I've worked out towards altering the weights on your wrists and ankles Seraph-sama?" It was a very real possibility that he'd forget everything he'd come up with so far after their spar, especially since he hadn't faced Seraph in combat for so long.

"Very well." Seraph sounded amused, so Bakura grabbed the nearest blank sheet of paper, frantically writing down what he could before Seraph got tired of waiting for him and dragged him out to spar. But he didn't, and Bakura wasn't sure what that meant even when he'd finished writing down everything he'd worked out.

"I'm done, Seraph-sama." The faint dread he felt showed in his voice, but Seraph ignored that, and he'd probably get over it once he'd got used to this again, and once Seraph had figured out how much he needed to hold back to give Bakura just the right level of challenge to improve.

"Good. Come then." Bakura followed his master slowly, fastening his own hair back in a low tail in imitation of Seraph's own hair. What followed felt like a nightmare as Seraph effortlessly overpowered him every time, and Bakura struggled to at least reduce the damage he took, managing to keep it to bruises mostly. He'd expected it to stop at the first broken bone, the way it always had before, but Seraph angrily told him to get up and keep fighting.

"You won't be able to stop just because you've broken a bone in a real fight, so get up and keep on fighting."

"Y-yes Seraph-sama." It wasn't until a punch broke three of his ribs, threatening to pierce a lung, that Seraph relented, and Bakura collapsed gratefully. Seraph picked him up and carried him to their bedroom, healing his broken bones, and only his broken bones.

--0--

For the first time since they'd learned the truth about Ryou's relationship with Bakura Yugi thought that perhaps Yami was right to worry about the thief. He expected to hear the spirit shouting at him in his mind, telling him that here was more proof that Ryou was abusing Bakura, and that Yugi should have listened to him, but instead there was only pained silence from him. Bakura had stumbled ever so slightly when he'd jumped down into the school yard in the morning, and Ryou hadn't bothered to reach out and steady him. But he _had_ casually intimidated the bullies who'd seemed to think that Bakura was vulnerable and they could take advantage of that.

"Hey, wait for us Ryou!" He could see that Bakura was having difficulty keeping up with his hikari anyway, and that was another odd thing, Ryou didn't normally move that fast. And then there was something almost defeated in Bakura's stance, as they stood waiting for Yugi and his friends to catch up to them, even if Yugi didn't quite know _what_ made it look that way.

"Sorry, I forgot that you normally meet us here." And there was something in the way Ryou said those words that Yugi was missing.

"You _forgot_?" Jou sounded just a little outraged by that, but Yugi was sure Yami would know what he was missing.

:Mou hitori no boku, there's something I'm not seeing, what is it:

-We only started to really do things with Seraph after we learned that he's an assassin who's enslaved Shadow. Before that we were too scared that Bakura would use Ryou against us.- Yami seemed to feel guilty, not that Yugi could blame him, _he'd_ been the one to urge Yugi to avoid Ryou after Bakura returned from being banished the first time.

"Jou, don't. It's only been recently that we've begun meeting him here, and perhaps there was something else on Ryou's mind." Yugi tried to play peacemaker, and he thought he'd managed to calm his volatile friend, and meanwhile Anzu focused on Bakura.

"Bakura-kun, is something wrong?" Bakura lifted his head, eyes slightly widened in surprise, as they all began walking to the classroom again.

"Oh, no. I'm fine." He looked over at Ryou, as if he was seeking approval, before he continued speaking. "I've just been getting back into serious training with Seraph-sama, and it's hard since I got so out of condition. And also we've just increased the mass of our training weights, so that makes it harder as well."

"You're not out of condition, how can you think that?" Honda sounded almost shocked at that idea.

"I might not be out of condition for you, or for any other modern teen, but compared to the condition I was in the first time I lived, or the condition an Adept really needs to be in I certainly need to improve. I know I'll never match Seraph-sama, but that isn't an excuse for me to stop trying." Yugi wasn't sure whether he should be bothered by Bakura's casual assumption of inferiority to Ryou, or to admire his determination not to let that stop him trying. The determination was the trait he needed to emulate, if he was to have any chance of becoming even a passable fighter, and keep from being dependent on others to protect him.

-But you already have determination aibou, with all the time you spent working on the Puzzle. Everyone else who tried gave up within two months, at the very longest.-

:Thank you mou hitori no boku.: Yugi watched from the corner of his eyes as Bakura and Ryou began setting up for class. He'd speak to Bakura when they'd finished setting up.

"Will there be any problems with my training tomorrow because of this?"

"No, of course not Yugi-dono. Why would there be?" But even as he was speaking Bakura's eyes went to Ryou. "I can do a few katas while you're working on conditioning, then I'll show you a kick, and an alternate way to punch. You also need to bring the punching bag I gave you last time, so I can adjust it."

"Adjust it?" Yugi didn't quite get what Bakura meant.

"Adjust the spells, so that it will recognise what he teaches you tomorrow as correct instead of only what he taught you last week." Ryou sounded a little impatient as he explained. "By the way Shadow, tomorrow can be your recovery day."

"Yes Seraph-sama." The teacher arrived before Yugi could ask them what that meant.

--0--

Bakura had to admit that Rukaiya was useful in feeding them, since she had time to actually bake every day, instead of only once a month and her meals were good, even if they weren't always what he'd cook. He especially had to acknowledge this now, since he'd have needed to be in two places at once to teach Yugi and to prepare the dough and everything else he set up in bulk to freeze. Even so he couldn't keep from feeling threatened by the woman, as if she was trying to replace him in Seraph's household, even though he'd been the one to select her and he knew that Seraph wasn't taking her to bed. Seraph had made him a promise shortly after the first time he'd had Bakura satisfy him, to at least _tell_ Bakura before he took any other to warm his bed. He shook his head, pushing that away, and began making his way to teach Yugi some more about how to fight.

Yugi was waiting for him, and Bakura could sense the traps Yami had set up, so he knew that the teen didn't trust him enough to train without the traps yet, not that he'd expected him to, but at least he'd also set up the punching bag, beside the dummy Seraph had provided to test him on the nerve pinches.

"Draw out your ki for me." There was a slight increase in the amount of ki Yugi could draw out, but not that much, and Bakura frowned, trying to think of a way to improve that. He could ask Seraph later he supposed. "Okay, now I want you to show me your nerve pinches on that practice dummy." He didn't bother explaining about the spell added to all the Adepts' dummies, or how Seraph had set this particular one up, preferring to see Yugi's reaction without having it tainted by any advance warning. The dummy screamed as Yugi performed the first nerve pinch correctly, then began to defend itself, albeit not very well, and using exclusively defensive methods, with no hint of attack. Yugi froze for a moment, but to his credit he recovered quickly and began performing the next pinch. When he missed the pinch slightly, but was still close enough to affect someone, he got a tiny electric shock, no more than you might from a door handle, but that didn't seem to faze him. What did faze him was the far more severe shock he got when he totally missed the point he was aiming for, and then _Yugi_ screamed, pulling away and turning on Bakura.

"What was that about?"

"I don't want you working on your nerve pinches with Solar or Yami any more. That's the alternative, you only get shocked when you screw up. I'll carry it back to your home for you and I'm sure Yami can cast a spell to keep people from hearing what's going on." Bakura grabbed for Yugi's wrist as he spoke, smiling in approval as he responded with precisely the counter required. This time there were only two counters he missed, and Bakura corrected them easily enough. "Now show me the punches I taught you." He was better than Bakura'd expected him to be given his earlier performance and Bakura checked the records in the punching bag while Yugi did his warm up and physical conditioning work. Apparently Yugi'd performed an average of ten correct punches on each hand a day, with just ninety incorrect punches in total, more towards the beginning of the week than the end. He'd added the information about the kick he was going to teach Yugi, so that it would glow with the correct form for the kicks, and made the requirements for the punches Yugi already knew a bit more stringent when an idea occurred to him.

-Seraph-sama, would it improve Yugi's ki level if I taught him to use ki to strengthen his punches?-

:Yes, and you can set the punching bag to detect if he's doing that right. Like this.: And the knowledge of how to do what Seraph wanted him to do flowed along their link, Bakura would never be able to explain it, not unless he learned how to do this a more conventional way, but he wouldn't need to. One punch on each hand with ki-strengthening would do at first, but in case Yugi managed more he set the bag to glow a different colour for those punches.

Yugi objected at first when he realised that Bakura was just teaching him a refinement on the punches he already knew, instead of a new type of punch, but Bakura shut him up easily enough.

"Your ki is growing far too slowly to be of any use even within a year. This will increase the rate at which it grows, and by reinforcing your body this way you can do more damage without hurting yourself." After he heard that Yugi began focusing on what Bakura was telling him intently.

--0--

And now that you've read this please review, if you'd be so kind.


	14. Chapter 14

Warning: Tendershipping with Ryou seme

This is AU, seriously so

:blah: hikari to yami telepathy

-blah- yami to hikari telepathy

Note: Bakura's flashback in this chapter was inspired by Cheysuli-Night's Plot Bunny number 835

Ryou watched as Shadow ran through the katas he'd told him to use, questioning him on the history they'd been studying recently, and on poisons, or on how assassinations _might_ have been employed usefully then as a distracter. It was good that Shadow obeyed him, and used the katas he recommended, but Ryou couldn't help but think he should have been able to come up with his own katas to work on the weaknesses Ryou had pointed out for him. No one had told _Ryou_ how to train after he reached gamma standard after all, and by now Shadow had more experience in training than Ryou had at that point. He shook his head, remembering how he'd made very sure that Shadow understood he was far less than Ryou was, breaking him, and then training him to be Ryou's devoted slave, half unconsciously. It had produced effects he wasn't sure he liked now, such as stifling Shadow's initiative in some areas, making sure that he wouldn't do anything he hadn't been told to do unless it was in an area Ryou had shown himself indifferent to, or something that would make life easier for Ryou while emphasising Shadow's lesser position. Then, when Shadow had finished he turned to Ryou for instructions, and Ryou smiled as an idea came to him for how to help deal with the weakness his Consort was displaying.

"I think it's time to add a few more katas to the ones you do at the moment, and possibly drop one or two of your current katas. Tell me, what do you feel are the weaknesses in your fighting that most need to be addressed at the moment?"

Shadow went pale at the question, Ryou couldn't quite blame him, this was the first time he'd actually asked Shadow his opinion on anything to do with fighting. "I...I'm really n-not th-hat sure. Umm...These katas were to w-work on my balance right? Err...I don't do well in suddenly increasing power?" That wasn't what Ryou saw as Shadow's biggest weakness, but if it was what he'd spotted Ryou would indulge him.

"Then tell me what kata would work best to help you improve on that area. I've taught you enough katas that there should be _one_ you know will help you with that." But he hadn't really named them, not even to give them numbers, and describing a kata was harder than actually demonstrating it. "No, on second thought, don't tell me what kata you think you should add to your training, _show_ it to me. You have half an hour to decide which kata to use." And in the meantime Ryou worked on his own katas, summoning Red Archer Girl to shoot at him as well, giving him something to dodge, and an unpredictable element to incorporate into his kata. It was in Ryou's opinion the ability to adapt to unpredictable elements that was Shadow's greatest weakness, but the only way to improve that was to perform katas while there was some unpredictable element to contend with, and Shadow probably wouldn't be too comfortable with Ryou's own techniques. He needed to build an obstacle course Ryou mused as he dodged one arrow, then twisted and caught another in his hand before throwing it back at Red Archer Girl, albeit rather inaccurately. They owned the forest next to their house, even if his father hadn't known that, Ryou had made sure of that, just as he'd surreptitiously paid for the house itself, letting his father think he lived in the apartment he'd rented at first.

"You're dismissed." Shadow had been given all the time he'd been promised, and Ryou turned to watch which kata he'd chosen. "Show me which kata you've decided to add to your daily practice." Ryou himself had a list of just three of the katas he'd taught Shadow which would be best for what he wanted, followed by seven that would work, but not as well, and he'd accept any of those, but none of the others. So he was pleasantly surprised when Shadow started a 'new' kata made up of elements from two of the katas he'd decided would work best, and three of the ones which would be acceptable, elements focused on the swift building of power. Shadow's movements were sometimes slightly awkward as he switched between elements from different katas, but it was still enough to impress Ryou.

"Well done. You can add that kata to your daily practice, as well as all the katas you took elements from. I've got one more kata to add to your daily practice, and you can drop the...second, third and fifth of your current daily practice katas."

"Yes Seraph-sama." Once he'd shown Shadow the last of the katas he'd considered the best for Shadow's suggested purposes they went into sparring.

--0--

For the past week Shadow had been turning up with bruises all over his body, and it worried Yami, despite the way they both claimed it was just from training. If he'd been injured in training wouldn't Seraph have healed him after all? The assassin hadn't been embarrassed to declare that it was one of his abilities, to heal people, which had made his choice of avatars in Monster World seem even more appropriate in retrospect, although it hadn't fitted in with his skills as an assassin. But even though it _worried_ Yami, to see the other spirit hurt so badly it was also a relief, to know that the others were finally noticing the disturbing aspects of Shadow's relationship with Seraph. Even if they were only bothering to recognise that there was a problem when they saw the most obvious signs, of the most minor part of how Shadow had been abused - although he was sure that was because they didn't understand the darkness in human hearts well enough to see anything but physical pain as abuse. He didn't like Kaiba, but he had to admit that the CEO alone among Yugi's circle would understand how Shadow had been abused; emotionally, mentally, physically and sexually. And he'd done his best to make sure he recognised that Shadow couldn't be blamed for stealing the things he'd returned to his rival the last time they'd met. He wasn't sure how well his efforts had worked, but he'd tried, and there'd been some understand in the CEO's eyes, even as he'd questioned whether he could be certain what Yami was returning to him was all that had been taken. All he'd been able to say to that question was that it was everything he'd been given to return.

-Aibou, do you think there is anything we can do to help Shadow?- He wasn't entirely happy about asking Yugi for help, since he'd been so reluctant to acknowledge there was anything wrong, and Yami had even felt him _envying_ Seraph once or twice for how compliant and submissive Shadow was, but...-You did agree that he might be having problems with Seraph.- For all that the way he'd _expressed_ his concern was more about his learning how to fight.

:I know that, and I'm still worried, but I can't think of anything we can do to help him. He still seems to think that Ryou is in the right, has the right to beat him for whatever reason he comes up with. You _know_ that, remember when we first met Rukaiya? They acted as if it was perfectly normal for Ryou to hit Bakura, or worse because he was startled by Ryou at school.: And yet everyone had dismissed it at the time, no one had tried to take it further, Yami hadn't dared when Yugi made it clear that he didn't see a reason to worry.

-Perhaps the first step would be to convince Shadow that the way Seraph treats him is wrong?- Because Yami didn't see how they could help Shadow if he was going to be fighting their efforts at every turn. And he would fight their efforts to help him unless he could be convinced that he _needed_ the help they were offering, Yami knew that, even without trying once.

:I don't think we could do that alone, do you: It was _good_ to have Yugi agreeing with him, and supporting him in his efforts to help Shadow at last, and if helping Shadow cost Yami the chance to ask Seraph to give him a body of his own then it didn't matter, it was worth it.

-He'll defer to you I think, part of the way Seraph taught him that all yamis are inferior to all hikaris, but that won't be enough to overcome his conditioned submission to Seraph. And he'll probably disregard _anything_ I say, and tell me I can't possibly understand. We need more people to help us, but we can't risk getting any adults involved.-

:They'd never believe us if we said that Ryou was abusing Bakura anyway, it's hard to believe how strong he is.: Yami couldn't argue with that, even though Yugi was smaller than Seraph the assassin was still pretty small, and looked somewhat fragile in many ways. But he did have an idea about what they should do to help Shadow.

-I think you should recruit Honda, Jou, and Anzu, to help talk with Shadow, and convince him that he's being abused, as well as find out more about how he's being abused. I know that it includes sexual abuse, even if he wouldn't call it that.-

:I'll do that then mou hitori no boku.: Yami settled back into Yugi's mind as he began putting thought into action.

--0--

Bakura fully intended to go home and spend the rest of the day cooking and sleeping now that he'd finished working with Yugi and done his own katas, the only thing he needed to do since today was his recovery day. He hadn't expected Yugi's friends to ambush them as they left the building.

"Here, we'll help you get everything back to Yugi's."

"We wanted to talk to you anyway Bakura-kun." He was pretty sure this was bad news, but he didn't protest as Jou and Honda took the bulky and awkward punching bag from him and Yugi. Seraph had told him to 'play nicely with the children', and he wasn't going to risk angering his master over this. He wasn't eager to find out what they wanted to talk about, but he still followed them obediently, waiting for them to explain in their own time.

"Go away Solar." Yugi cut the assassin off without giving him a chance to say anything, and Bakura decided he didn't want to know what his bondservant had done to merit that anger. He waited until Yugi had settled them all in his bedroom to speak.

"Why did you bring me here?"

"We're worried about you Bakura-kun. You've shown up with new bruises every day for over a week, and Seraph never has any bruises." So that was why Anzu had doubted him when he told her he'd got the bruises from sparring with Seraph. "If your bruises came from training why doesn't he have bruises as well?"

"Because he heals faster than I do," Since he had so much more ki and could use it better, "and because he's harder to hurt than I am, I bruise far more easily that Seraph-sama does." Bakura hadn't figured out how to use his ki to keep from getting hurt yet, and Seraph insisted that he needed to work that particular trick out for himself or he wouldn't be able to use it properly.

"But...he can heal people. Why wouldn't he heal you?" Yugi's voice was almost a whine, and Bakura clenched his teeth to avoid snapping at him immediately. He only spoke when he was sure he could be polite about it.

"Seraph-sama did heal me, he just left the bruises on the basis that they would encourage me to learn faster. I understand that he didn't even get this much in the way of healing when he was first training, since he didn't know how to use his healing magic, and Delphi doesn't have an angelic designation." This was beginning to feel like some sort of intervention, and Bakura needed _help_. -Seraph-sama, Yugi-dono and his friends dragged me back to his home, and now they're asking me questions about you!- He let his panic seep through their link as well as the message, in the hope it would add urgency.

:Answer their questions, but stall when you can, I'll come for you.:

"Angelic designation?" Jou sounded confused and Bakura seized on that to divert their attention for a while.

"All the Adepts who can heal people are given a name among the Children of the Eldest, Fairest and Fallen that has some angelic connotations, such as Seraph, or Tenshi." Bakura shrugged, that seemed simple enough to him.

"But...we know it isn't just when you're training that Ryou hurts you." Bakura wanted to roll his eyes at Honda's obtuseness, but restrained himself.

"No, but he only punishes me when I deserve it, and often it's for things like being careless, with information or with my safety, or for disobeying him. And I _know_ precisely what Seraph-sama will punish me for, it isn't as if he keeps changing the rules on me the way some Adepts do with their households."

"Did Solar do that?" It was interesting that Yugi would assume he was referring to Solar, and Bakura blinked slowly, wondering just what his bondservant had done to merit such distrust.

"I don't know, Seraph-sama would never have allowed me to socialise with his rival's concubines, all I know about how other Adepts treat their households comes from gossip. And I will not ask Rukaiya, but...I have the feeling that Solar was _not_ a good master."

"Does Ryou hurt you in bed Bakura-kun?" Anzu was blushing as she asked the question. "It's just...he's seemed a bit sadistic at times."

"Only once, that was the first time he took me, and losing your virginity always hurts." Bakura blushed as he remembered what had happened then. "He didn't realise that he was hurting me either, it was his first time taking anyone."

--0--

Bakura frowned at the print outs left lying on Seraph's desk. He knew precisely why his hikari would have been doing research on how to safely fuck a man and he was torn between relief that his master would at least know in theory how not to hurt him, and a nagging fear that at twelve they were still too young. It had hurt him to lose his virginity at the same age last time, even with the oil. But...that time it had been with a full grown man and Seraph was smaller than that, he knew that from using his hands and mouth on him. And Seraph had already been wonderfully considerate, he'd always taken care of Bakura too, either by returning the favour, or by opening their link wide enough that Bakura felt what he was doing to his hikari.

He shrugged to himself, dismissing those thoughts and stripped, curling up in the huge bed piled with cushions and blankets that was the only thing that had stayed the same in the room since he'd first been given a body. The luxury had flattered him at first, even if it was the sort given to the dead, but then it had began to scare and unnerve him. He hadn't dared say anything to Seraph, certainly not while he'd been training to become Seraph's Consort, but shortly after testing Seraph had dragged him to a 'DIY store' and had him choose new colours for his room at the compound.

He'd only realised the gamble Seraph had taken with him at the party held to celebrate afterwards. He'd been left with the older Consorts, and the concubines, and they'd been nice enough to him, even if they treated him like a child. It had annoyed him, especially since the Adepts were treating Seraph, more than 5000 years his junior, as a peer, but he took it once he worked out that as far as the 'adults' were concerned he was damn near invisible. And he overheard one of them, Tenshi he learned later, marvel that Seraph had been able to train him well enough in five months that he hadn't gotten them both killed during testing. Up until that moment he'd thought the things they'd been fighting could just hurt them, not actually kill them.

"Expecting something my pet?" He'd fallen so deeply into his musings that Seraph's voice surprised him.

"No," he shook his head, "just waiting for you, Seraph-sama. And...in Egypt I learned to take any chance I could to rest, if not sleep." Seraph _probably_ wouldn't have woken him up if he'd been asleep.

"Waiting for me, hmm. Why not undress me then?"

"As you wish Seraph-sama." Bakura got to his hands and knees and crawled over to Seraph where he was standing beside the bed. Glancing down he could see that his hikari was already barefoot, so he started with the jacket and shirt. He could pick the clothes up later so he just let them drop by the bed. Then he started on the trousers, they were loose enough that he could just let them drop to the floor once he'd gotten the fly open, and he nuzzled carefully at Seraph's crotch through the briefs. He already knew that Consorts weren't meant to initiate sex, even if Seraph was a lot more lenient than most Adepts.

Seraph laughed at that, and took hold of his shoulders, pulling him up and then climbing on the bed with him, and pushing him back until he was lying down with Seraph crouched predatorily over him. He leaned down for a kiss, hard, dominating, but not painful, and Bakura responded submissively, the way he'd been taught. Seraph was nearly his whole world by now, pleasing him the most important thing in his life, or he wouldn't be working so hard to learn how to apply his skills as a thief in this time, improve his fighting abilities _and_ master everything a child born in this time would know by now.

"Shadow, I want to be inside you tonight." And that meant he _would_ take Bakura now, but...

"Can you at least be facing me when you take me?" None of the men who'd demanded he spread his legs to keep from being handed over to be mutilated had taken him any way but from behind.

"That's supposed to hurt more you realise?"

"I...I don't care." The idea of Seraph hurting him _more_ than the first man who'd taken him scared him, but...he wanted this to be different from the other times. He wanted to be able to pretend Seraph cared about him as more than a convenient body.

Seraph was a bit awkward in preparing and taking him, it hurt a bit, but still less than he'd expected, and he didn't let it show. And he only felt himself tear once, near the end, _not_ enough to keep him from climaxing too.

Then Seraph pulled out of him, and started to get up. Only one thought was running through Bakura's mind, if Seraph left him here, like this, it meant he was nothing more than a body to the assassin, something to use, not someone to care about.

"Please, stay with me." He clutched at Seraph's arms desperately. Seraph had always been stronger than he was, the margin of difference had only increased over the last five years, if he wanted to Seraph could make him let go.

"I was just going to turn off the lights." Seraph laughed, but when Bakura kept clinging to him he sighed, settled back down in the bed and waved a hand, using his own sort of magic to dim them. "But let's not sleep on the wet spot." And he moved them both to another part of the huge bed.

--0--

-Seraph-sama, Yugi-dono and his friends dragged me back to his home, and now they're asking me questions about you!- Ryou stumbled and landed badly, skinning his knee and hands when Shadow contacted him, panic and shock echoing through their bond. There was only one thing he could think of doing and he _hated_ finding himself in this position.

:Answer their questions, but stall when you can, I'll come for you.: He'd been doing his katas in street clothes, so he didn't need to worry about being inappropriately dressed, and the blood from his knee wouldn't show on his black trousers, especially after he used a quick spell to repair them, or at least hide the hole with an illusion. Ryou jumped to the roof of his house, and then from there to the next roof, making his way to the Game Shop. He smiled at Yugi's mother, and flirted with her just enough for her to let him pass before he went to find his Adept Consort.

"He didn't realise that he was hurting me either, it was his first time taking anyone." Ryou heard Shadow's shaking voice through Yugi's door, and he could feel his lover's distress at what he was remembering, so he didn't bother with subtlety, kicking the door open instead and moving swiftly to Shadow's side, scooping him up in his arms.

"You are upsetting my Consort. I will _hurt_ anyone who brings this sort of thing up to him again, he's been hurt enough." Shadow shivered, and pressed his face into Ryou's shoulder, submissively showing his pain and discomfort. Anzu was the only one who looked as if she felt even the slightest bit guilty.

"Yeah, by _you_." Jou sounded offended, and Ryou resisted the urge to hit him, considering how weak normal people were and how angry he was at the moment he'd probably cripple the blond, without really intending to.

"By a lot of people, starting with the bastard who ordered the genocide of his people." And the pieces of filth who'd raped him, although Ryou wasn't going to mention that to anyone, especially since Shadow had never said anything about that to him. "And when I hurt him it's always for a _reason_."

"Ryou, mou hitori no boku, thinks that you're raping Bakura, and he did say that you hurt him the first time." Yugi sounded worried, but he was still being polite...

"And he hurt me the first time I let him take me, that's how first times work. I really don't care what you children think, Shadow is mine, mine to treasure, mine to punish and mine to protect. And your assumptions don't really matter. You'll stay out of this if you want to continue with those lessons you've been getting Yugi." Since that was enough to shut him up Yugi couldn't have been _that_ concerned about Shadow, and Ryou left carrying his Consort.

"Y-you don't have to keep carrying me." Shadow only spoke after they'd got far enough away that none of the idiots who'd upset him could hear him, and so Ryou was inclined to indulge him. He set Shadow down onto his feet and kissed his Consort gently.

"Do you want to tell me what that was about?" Ryou made sure that his voice didn't sound angry, or accusing, he _knew_ that what he'd interrupted had not been Shadow's idea, but he wasn't sure just who he should blame.

"I...they were asking me about the bruises I get from sparring first, and Yugi asked why you didn't heal me. I think it shocked them even more when I said that you healed everything but the bruises." Shadow looked almost guilty over that for some reason. "I _told_ them that your training is far harsher than mine, or at least I think I did. But...I don't think they believed me. Even though they should have _seen_ that you didn't waste magic on your skinned palms."

"They didn't see me for long enough or well enough to notice that, and I wouldn't expect them to have noticed either. What stalling tactics did you use?"

"I didn't manage to use many. We diverted a little into how Adepts with healing magic are all given angelic names, then I pointed out how much better it is to _know_ what will earn punishment, rather than facing punishment on a whim. Yugi asked if solar had been like that, and I had to admit I didn't know...but then they asked me about sex..."

And that had reminded Shadow of the first time Ryou had taken him. It had been the morning after that had stuck in Ryou's mind, not the event itself.

--0--


	15. Chapter 15

Warning: Tendershipping with Ryou seme

This is AU, seriously so

:blah: hikari to yami telepathy

-blah- yami to hikari telepathy

Ryou was still surprised sometimes by the way his Shadow clung to him in sleep and how desperate he was for Ryou's approval and attention, but it was very enjoyable anyway. So it wasn't a surprise that Shadow was in his arms when he woke after the way Shadow had begged him not to leave him alone after actually fucking him for the first time. That tight heat had been incredible, something he hadn't expected in the slightest and something he intended to experience often in the future. He hadn't expected Shadow to still be asleep when he woke, but he didn't _need_ to get out of bed yet, so he might as well just let him sleep. Even though they were the exact same size, height and weight, and they both put on muscles in the same way - without bulking up - somehow Shadow always seemed much frailer than he did. His current behaviour only emphasised this as Shadow pressed his face into Ryou's chest, and Ryou almost automatically began stroking his hair and back soothingly. He treasured the trust this showed, as a sign of how effectively he'd managed to break his Consort to his will.

It didn't take _too_ long for Shadow to wake up himself, snapping immediately from sleep to full alertness even after last night, and Ryou smiled approvingly at that. He released Shadow to let him get out of bed, but as his Consort moved he seemed to feel something, because he froze for a second, drawing in a hissing breath. Ryou knew that it was supposed to hurt after the first time you were taken, but...after a full night to recover? And Shadow had a high pain threshold, if not quite as high as Ryou's, so it shouldn't hurt enough for him to show it.

He used his magic to bring the lights up, sitting up and grabbing hold of Shadow as his Consort moved away from him.

"Stay." It came out almost as a growl, and Shadow obeyed, freezing, but trembling ever so slightly. Ryou could see that his Consort was scared, terrified almost, but he couldn't _quite_ bring himself to care. He ran his hands over his Consort's body, watching to see how he reacted, and where he was hurt. Shadow didn't react badly until Ryou ran a finger up the crack between his ass, without quite entering him, but Shadow still flinched away, then turned to look at Ryou, terror stark in his eyes. Ryou laughed and gently pushed his Consort down to lie on his stomach as he moved to check where they'd fucked the night before.

"Damn!" He cursed as he saw the blood staining the white sheets and turned on Shadow. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"T-tell you what, Seraph-sama?"

"That I _hurt_ you." He raised his hand in frustration without thinking about what he was doing, and Shadow cringed away from him. That...didn't make any sense he thought, lowering his hand. He'd never hit Shadow outside of sparing and formal punishment since he'd arranged for Shadow to get his own body, and he always _told_ Shadow about formal punishment beforehand. And besides, the way he was holding his hand, fingers spread wide and half curled, bent back at the wrist, it wouldn't be any good for hitting anything. He raked the hand he'd raised through his hair as if that was what he'd intended all along and took hold of Shadow by the shoulders. "Answer my question Shadow. Why did I find _blood_ on the sheets from last night?"

"I...towards the end I tore inside. It wasn't much, really, I'll heal soon enough."

"No, you won't." Ryou let go of Shadow's left shoulder, reaching around behind his Consort with his right hand, and gently pressing against the entrance to his body. Shadow hid the pain it caused him, but Ryou could feel it through their bond, which he'd forced open. "You should have told me as soon as I hurt you, so I could do this." And he focused his will into healing his Consort, not just from the tear, but to make him as tight as the virgin he'd been before last night.

"I should send you to the scientists, have you altered so that you're self-lubricating there and you won't get hurt when I fuck you." Ryou knew that the scientists and the labs frightened Shadow, and he coldly used that threat to punish him.

"No, please, don't. J-just tell me what I did wrong, and I won't do it again, I swear!" Shadow was terrified of Ryou, and of his anger, and he really didn't seem to understand _why_ he was angry.

"If I _ever_ hurt you during sex and you fail to tell me again then I _will_ send you to the scientists. Do you understand me?"

"Yes Seraph-sama."

"Good. And I'm going to spank you for failing to tell me that you were hurt this time." He pulled Shadow over his knee, and began the process of spanking him, as promised.

--0--

"Well, that didn't work too well did it?" Yugi winced at Anzu's comment, she'd advised against talking to Bakura like this, and certainly against ambushing him and dragging him away from Ryou. "He was more afraid of the way we were forcing him to talk to us than he was of Ryou. He probably contacted Ryou asking to be rescued from us."

"We had to do _something_!" Jou sounded outraged at the implication that they should leave Ryou to abuse Bakura.

"Yeah, we couldn't just leave him there to be hurt!"

-Why not? No one cared until you could actually _see_ the bruises Seraph was leaving on Shadow's body. And...I hate to say this, but I'm not entirely sure that the bruises really do constitute abuse. Seraph's refusal to heal them does, but not making the bruises in and of itself.- Yugi hated the bitterness he could sense from Yami, but he didn't know what to say to the spirit he loved.

"Of course not, but we didn't have to use those tactics, there wasn't any indication that we had to hurry." Anzu frowned as she spoke, obviously thinking about the bruises they'd started seeing on Bakura's body. "I know the bruises looked bad, but that's all they are, bruises, and we don't actually have enough evidence to take to anyone. No one will act on our suspicions alone, or on what little evidence we have now."

-I think Seraph might be good enough to hide any evidence of abuse. I'm sure that he's brainwashed Shadow enough that _he_ won't be willing to tell anyone that he's been abused.- Yami sounded sad about that, and a little scared; Yugi couldn't exactly blame him for that, and it gave him an argument to use on Anzu.

"That's why we were trying to talk to Bakura, the only way we can show anyone that he's being abused is if _he_ tells us how to get evidence, and he won't until we can convince him that he is being abused."

"Yes, but this wasn't the best way to convince him, was it Yugi?" Anzu sounded sad, and a little bit guilty, while Yami was radiating an air of pain, mixed with a very little satisfaction, and a hint of guilt when Anzu pointed out the flaws in their approach. "We surrounded him, and bullied him into coming here, then we began interrogating him, and accusing someone he thinks he loves. No wonder Bakura-kun became defensive."

-I think he might have contacted Seraph asking for help as well, I could sense _some_ Shadow Magic use, but not what type, when Shadow claimed that Seraph did heal him.- Yami sounded unhappy about that, and Yugi could see why. If Ryou healed Bakura, but still left the bruises what sort of damage did he do when Bakura was 'training'?

"And he obviously called to Ryou for help. He _says_ those bruises are from training, but he implied that Ryou usually does worse damage."

"I didn't think of that." Honda sounded shocked. "Me and Jou, we've been fighting for most of our lives, and we got plenty of bruises, but not much worse, not like Bakura was talking about."

"Yeah, I've got hurt worse than Honda has, but even using knives I haven't got that many scars, the way Bakura talked he needed Ryou to heal broken bones or cuts after every training session. That isn't training, that's torture."

"But the fact that Ryou _does_ heal him of that much damage will make it harder for us to convince people that Bakura is being abused. Yes, he has bruises, but Ryou has publicly declared and proven himself a skilled martial artist, Bakura has admitted to being less skilled than Ryou, and martial artists in training often have a lot of bruises." Yugi frowned at Anzu's clarification of the problems facing them, he hadn't wanted to think about that, he knew that it would be hard to convince any adult to take their concerns seriously, even _if_ there'd been more physical evidence.

"We'll just have to try and find more evidence then, and perhaps you could talk to him alone Anzu? Or you Honda, since you didn't ask any questions and Anzu seems...more sensitive."

"Sure." Honda still didn't seem that worried about Bakura, but Yugi wasn't as paranoid as Yami was anyway.

"If I can Yugi-kun." Anzu nodded to him as she replied, frowning a little. "But I don't think he'll be that willing to trust me."

--0--

Bakura only started shaking when they got back home, and he couldn't figure out why, or why he couldn't _stop_. And he had to get himself under control, and quickly, or Seraph would be angry at him for being so weak. But...he kept on having flashbacks, to that first awful six months when Seraph was educating him as to his proper place in life, to his life before he was trapped in the Ring, being raped, or being tortured for doing what he had to so he could survive, and to the destruction of his home and clan. Then...Seraph pulled him into his arms.

"It's alright, I'm not angry at you for being upset." Bakura tentatively reached out through their bond, to confirm that, expecting to be rebuffed angrily, but instead all he could sense was love, support, and a protective/possessive fury directed at the children who'd tried to separate them. He shivered at that thought and pressed himself against his master more firmly, nuzzling into his chest for comfort. Seraph stroked his back and hair gently, whispering how much he cared for him, and how proud he was of Bakura's self-control throughout. It was enough to make Bakura actually start to _cry_, one of the few times he wouldn't get into trouble for doing so. Seraph just kept on praising him, rocking him back and forward slightly, as a comfort, and Bakura kept on crying, until he couldn't cry any more, ignoring Rukaiya's scandalised gasp when she saw them like that.

"Shadow, is there anything that you find helps your emotional state? I find doing katas is calming, almost a meditation at times, is there anything that has a similar effect for you? Or should I just put you to bed?" Bakura found himself blushing at the implication of Seraph's second question, at least what he assumed the implication was, even if he should be long past that, but he forced himself to think about his answer to the first question. If Seraph calmed emotional turmoil by doing katas that explained a bit of the shape he was in, but in Bakura's first life he'd never found anything that had a calming effect on him, and he wouldn't have wanted to. And in this life the closest thing he'd found to a calming activity was cooking, but especially...

"Baking. It gives me something to think about, and kneading the dough..." He shrugged without clarifying what he meant, he didn't need to after all, his master hadn't asked.

"Oh, _good_, I've missed the wonderful breads you make. Could you start off a sourdough loaf as well?" A slow, approving smile spread across his face, and Bakura smiled back at him, tremulously. Seraph had approved of his unspoken request to go to the kitchen to compose himself, and even better he'd praised his skills there, and he'd wanted to find a way to make him feel better about what had just happened. He _hadn't_ told Bakura that he'd betrayed or failed him in any way, and he'd half expected that he would, he'd feared that possibility, the thought of betraying him _hurt_.

"I can try, I cannot be certain that it will necessarily work, you know that we don't always get the correct yeasts. And even if I succeed we won't get the loaf for at least five days." It didn't really bother him that he was so comfortable in the kitchen, he _knew_ that it was considered unmanly in a lot of modern cultures, but it gave Seraph another reason to want to keep him, and made him feel a little less dependent, like a prostitute.

"I know, but I can wait." Seraph smiled at Bakura almost teasingly, and Bakura bowed his head blushing. "Rukaiya, I want you to help Shadow bake however he tells you to, or go and make yourself useful cleaning somewhere else if that's what he wants from you."

"Yes Seraph-sama."

"I could probably use someone to wash everything up as I use it. Is there any bread you wish me to bake in particular Seraph-sama?"

"No, just something other than plain bread." Like the only bread Rukaiya ever baked, _when_ she did bake something.

"Yes Seraph-sama. Shall I freeze some as well, for future use?" If he did then while the loaves he would bake today were rising he could make the dough up for other loaves.

"Definitely."

--0--

Ryou sighed as he went over their financial situation. They didn't have any reason to worry about money, but for the past year all of their income had been from the return on his investments, made using the payments from when he'd Worked earlier, or from the coding Shadow did, and more had come from the coding than Ryou was happy with. He wasn't sure whether he should be happy or pissed that Shadow could survive without him now, although he'd got all his coding jobs through the Children of the Eldest, Fairest and Fallen, which was a sort of comfort. But he was definitely worried about how long it was since he'd Worked, he wouldn't be getting really good assignments for a while, and even though he'd been available to Work for more than two months he hadn't been contacted.

He knew why he wasn't getting any assignments as well, requesting the break for training had done some damage to his reputation, and he didn't have the history to Work at alpha enhanced standard already, his last assignment had been beta enhanced and more than a year ago. And he'd made it clear to the Fairest that he didn't want Shadow to Work until _after_ he'd started to Work again, which gave Ryou more time to get him into shape again. There was only one real solution for this, even if it did hurt his pride a little. He would have to make this request in writing, and as formally as he could manage, so Ryou pulled out a sheet of parchment, a brush and black ink.

'Lady Fairest,' He'd only met her once, before he'd Worked for the first time, all other contact had been through letters such as this.

'Honour to you, but it is my wish to humbly request that I receive some assignment. I understand that during the year I spent training I have suffered a loss of reputation, and since I underwent alpha enhanced testing, rather than alpha standard you do not have any record of how my skill has improved, so I wish to inform you that I will accept any assignments that could be undertaken by a beta standard or higher Adept.

'Yours in hope

'Seraph.'

Ryou knew that really he should have used more beautiful language, and phrased his request much more aesthetically, but that had never really been something he was good at. And besides he had a feeling the Fairest might well appreciate the directness - comparative directness anyway, as compared to the circumtuitous way most Adepts of the Children of the Fairest tended to address their concerns when they contacted her. Generally his fellows tended to be more concerned with making sure what they wrote down or said for her eyes or ears was beautiful than comprehensible, but Ryou didn't really have the talent needed to play word games like that with her. But he _could_ make sure it was presented beautifully, since he was very skilled with calligraphy. The private language of the Children of the Fairest was beautiful written down anyway, but Ryou had focused on making each ideograph as perfect as he could, and placing it in the perfect position on the page to convey its meaning and compliment the other ideographs.

Before he could change his mind Ryou folded the parchment, sealing it with green wax and using his personal seal to confirm it was from him, then addressed it and placed it in the gold box that functioned as a mail delivery system for all the Children of the Fairest. There, now he was pretty sure he would get _some_ sort of assignment, because why would the Fairest turn down the chance to get Work that she _knew_ Ryou was capable of out of him, without insulting him by assigning something too easy.

Done was done anyway, and so he turned away from the box, deciding to go and check on his Consort. He'd focused on their finances the way he hadn't for too long in order to distact himself from how his 'friends' had tried to take Shadow away from him, and now he would focus on making sure that Shadow was feeling better, safer and more secure. Because if he let himself feel angry at what they were trying to do Ryou knew that his thoughts would turn to ways of killing them, without anyone suspecting, killing them, or torturing them. As he made his way to the kitchen Ryou felt the box contact him, telling him that he had a message, and returned, finding that the Fairest had accepted his offer, giving him a beta enhanced assignment.

--0--

Yami hated how _wrong_ it had gone when they tried to help Shadow. He'd thought that Yugi would have a better plan than that, would be able to cite the abuse he'd observed, or asked Yami to cite the abuse _he'd_ observed, and convince him that yes, Seraph was abusing him. Instead they'd confronted Shadow, and accused Seraph openly, rather than guiding Shadow to recognise the way he was being treated for himself. Yami was pretty sure that Shadow was too brainwashed to understand that he'd been, was _still_ being, abused unless he figure it out for himself, and Seraph kept him from ever realising that by himself.

-Yugi, I have an idea about how we could help Shadow, if you wish to hear it.- He'd been brooding over the debacle their first effort had been for most of the day, and all night too, thankfully he didn't need to sleep the way Yugi did.

:What do you want me to do? Our last attempt didn't go too well.: Yugi seemed angry, and Yami refused to cringe because of that.

-Write down every time you see something that looks or sounds like abuse, or the signs of abuse, and get all your friends to do the same thing. I'll let you know if I notice anything that you might have missed.- Or seen and dismissed. -Then, in a couple of months we'd have something to show Shadow, or possibly an adult, grounds for our worries.-

:I'll let you tell the others about it.: Putting the responsibility for this plan firmly on Yami, but he didn't mind that at all. He didn't think there was anything he could have done better to organise their first attempt at helping Shadow, not in the short time the others felt they had to work in, but he could console himself by doing everything he could to make their second effort a _lot_ more successful.

-Then can we have a chance to buy some suitable notebooks precisely for that purpose before we go to school today. I think Seraph might have instructed Shadow to avoid us for a while, even if he doesn't do it on his own.- And Yami thought that since Shadow was obviously deluded enough to believe he loved Seraph he'd want to avoid the people who'd tried to separate him from his abuser.

:And if he hasn't: Yugi seemed concerned, and if Seraph hadn't given Shadow those orders Yam thought it would be a bad sign, something Shadow could point to and say 'see, he wouldn't have done that if he was abusing me', and it would mean Seraph thought, or _knew_ he had too much control over Shadow to need to tell him to avoid them. :But sure, we can leave a little early and get the notebooks on the way to school.:

-Thank you. If Shadow hasn't been ordered to avoid us we'll wait until we can get the others alone, and make our own records until then. And...if he hasn't been instructed to avoid us could you try to find out why?-

:Why not you mean. And if he lets me get close enough to find out I'll ask, sure.: Then Yugi began focusing on getting ready to go to school, something Yami appreciated because he'd have to leave early to have a chance to get the notebooks. He didn't question the type of notebook Yugi chose, all four being soft covered reporter's notebooks, even if he'd have preferred something a little sturdier - but then he wasn't entirely sure Yugi could afford to buy the sort of notebooks he'd prefer for this. He knew the tournaments he won for his aibou had high prize money, but he also knew that Yugi had given _all_ the money from Duellist Kingdom to Jou, and he wasn't sure he hadn't been similarly generous after other tournaments.

Still, it took long enough for Yugi's purchases to go through that he had to run the five blocks to school, something he did more easily than he would have before Shadow started training him, and he didn't have a chance to see how Shadow reacted to him, or to talk to his friends before class. And when break came Shadow stayed as close to Seraph as he could, avoiding Yugi almost the way he tended to avoid Yami.

-It looks like he's either been ordered to avoid you, or just wants to avoid you aibou.-

:I know. But I don't think he's going to be avoiding Anzu, don't ask me why not. It gives us time to fill the others in on our plan too.: Yugi gathered his friends, handing the notebooks out and explaining what they were for before their next teacher arrived.

--0--


End file.
